Danny Dill
Musician · 1924–2008 · Clarksburg, Tennessee
Best known for
Songwriter
Danny Dill was a Tennessee-born Nashville songwriter whose “The Long Black Veil” (with Marijohn Wilkin) and “Detroit City” (with Mel Tillis) became two of the most-recorded country songs of their era — the first a murder ballad written to sound a century older than it was, the second a homesick lament that carried well past country radio.
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- Born September 19, 1924, in Clarksburg, Tennessee.
- Co-wrote “The Long Black Veil” with Marijohn Wilkin; Lefty Frizzell’s 1959 Columbia single reached the country Top 10, and the song has since been recorded by Johnny Cash, the Band, and Joan Baez among many others.
- Co-wrote “Detroit City” with Mel Tillis; Bobby Bare’s recording made it a standard and it remains the pair’s most widely covered song.
- Recorded under his own name as well, cutting sides including “I’m Hungry for Your Lovin’” and “He’s Biding His Time.”
- Died October 23, 2008.
