Bill Dees

William "Bill" Dees (born January 24, 1939 - October 24, 2012) was an American musician most famous for his song writing collaborations with singer Roy Orbison.

Career

Born in the small town of Borger in the Texas Panhandle, he played guitar and sang with a band called "The Five Bops," gaining enough recognition to perform on an Amarillo, Texas radio station. Dees eventually made his way to Nashville, Tennessee where his meeting Roy Orbison led to a collaboration that produced a string of successful songs for Monument Records including the hits "Oh, Pretty Woman" and "It's Over".

In 1967, Dees co-wrote all the songs for the Orbison album and MGM motion picture The Fastest Guitar Alive.

Beyond his work with Orbison, Bill Dees wrote hundreds of songs, a number of which were recorded by performers such as Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Skeeter Davis, Glen Campbell, Billy Joe Royal, Frank Ifield, Mark Dinning and Gene Pitney. In 2000, he recorded his own album titled Saturday Night At The Movies, a compilation of songs previously sung by Orbison that had been written with Dees and some that Dees had written alone.

Dees resided near Branson, Missouri, and continued to write songs with collaborator Jack Pribek until his death on October 24, 2012. He was latterly living at a nurs­ing facil­ity in Mountain Home, Arkansas, when he died.

Songs with Roy Orbison (partial list)

• "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964)
• "It's Over" (1964)
• "Borne On The Wind" (1964)
• "Ride Away" (1965)
• "Crawling Back" (1965)
• "Sleepy Hollow" (1965)
• "Where Is Tomorrow" (1966)
• "Communication Breakdown" (1966)
• "Walk On" (1969)
• "Tennessee Owns My Soul" (1969)
• "Windsurfer" (1989)
• "There Won't Be Many Coming Home" (1966)
• "The Fastest Guitar Alive" (1966)