Wayland Holyfield
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Wayland D. Holyfield, (born 15 March 1942), is a prominent American songwriter and leader in the songwriting community.
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Early life
Wayland Holyfield was born on 15 March 1942 in Mallettown, Arkansas. He was educated in Arkansas public schools and attended Hendrix College at Conway, Arkansas before graduating from the University of Arkansas with a degree in marketing in 1965. Prior to his musical career Holyfield was a wholesale appliance salesman and advertising account manager.
Early career
In 1972 Holyfield left Arkansas and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a songwriting career and his first song was recorded in 1973. In 1975 Holyfield achieved his first solo number one hit You're My Best Friend recorded by Don Williams.
In addition to Williams, Holyfield's songs have been recorded by numerous Nashville luminaries including Randy Travis, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ernest Tubb, Anne Murray, George Strait and others. During his career Holyfield was writer or co-writer of over 40 Top Ten hits and 14 #1 hits. Some of his best-known songs are Could I Have this Dance, Nobody Likes Sad Songs, Till All the Rivers Run Dry, Some Broken Hearts Never Mend and You're Going Out of My Mind.
In his home state Holyfield is most famous for his song Arkansas You Run Deep in Me which was written for the 1986 Arkansas Sesquicentennial celebration. Holyfield played the song at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1992 and it was selected as the State song of Arkansas by the Arkansas legislature in 1993.
Leadership and Awards
Holyfield is the current chairman of the Nashville Songwriters Foundation. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, (NSAI) for almost 25 years. From 1990 to 1999 he served on the ASCAP board of directors, the first Nashville songwriter to do so.
Holyfield received a Grammy nomination in 1972 for "Could I Have this Dance" and in 1979 he received the NSAI Presidential Award. Holyfield has won 14 BMI Performance Awards and 16 ASCAP Performance Awards.
Holyfield was the 1983 ASCAP Country Writer of the Year co-winner and in 1992 he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and to the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame.
Quotes
- "I am very proud of being an advocate for songwriters and intellectual property protection. Being elected to the ASCAP Board that represents over 60,000 members and being the only writer member ever from Nashville is an honor and responsibility that I take quite seriously."
- "I am proudest of the song "Could I Have This Dance" because it is used in so many weddings (listed as one of the top 5 wedding songs). Touching people's lives is what songwriting is really about. I am proud to be able to say that I am a professional songwriter and that my music has had an impact in some small way on those who have heard it. What a wonderful legacy."
Adapted from the article Wayland Holyfield (http://www.wikinfo.org/wiki.phtml?title=Wayland_Holyfield), from Wikinfo, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.