David Lee Murphy
(born January 7, 1959 in Herrin, Illinois [1]) is an American country music artist. Signed to MCA Records in 1994, Murphy made his first appearance on the Billboard
country charts that year with "Just Once", a song from the soundtrack to the 1994 film 8 Seconds
. A year later, Murphy's debut album Out with a Bang
was released; overall, it produced four chart singles. His follow-up albums, Gettin' Out the Good Stuff
(1996) and We Can't All Be Angels
(1997) were less successful than their predcessors, and by 1998, Murphy was dropped from MCA's roster. A fourth album, Tryin' to Get There
, was released in 2004 on Koch Entertainment, with the Top 5 single "Loco" being released from that album before Koch closed its country division in 2005.
Murphy's four albums produced a total of thirteen singles on the country charts, including the Number One hit "Dust on the Bottle" from 1995 and four more Top Ten hits. Although he has not recorded since 2004, Murphy has co-written several singles for other artists, including "Living in Fast Forward", which was a Number One single for Kenny Chesney in 2006.
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DAVID LEE MURPHY TICKETS
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Biography
David Lee Murphy was born on January 7, 1959 in Herrin, Illinois.
By 1983, he had moved to
Nashville, Tennessee, seeking a successful career in country music. Two years later, he was spotted by record producer
Tony Brown at a club in Nashville, although Brown did not sign Murphy to a record deal until nearly a decade later.
[2] In the meantime, however, Murphy did co-write album cuts for
Reba McEntire and
Doug Stone.
Musical career
Murphy's first recording for MCA was the song "Just Once", which was included on the soundtrack to the 1994 film
8 Seconds
.
In 1994, "Just Once" entered the
Billboard
Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts, reaching a peak of #36. The same year, Murphy began work on his debut album
Out with a Bang
, released in early 1995. The album produced three hit singles overall, including "Party Crowd", which became the most-played country song of 1995, as well as "
Dust on the Bottle", his first and only Number One single.
Out with a Bang
became the best-selling album for a new male country act in all of 1995, and was certified
platinum by the
RIAA.
Gettin' Out the Good Stuff
was the title of Murphy's second album, released in 1996. Although it produced back-to-back Top 5 singles in "Every Time I Get Around You" and "The Road You Leave Behind", the album did not sell as well as
Out With a Bang
had;
[3] in addition, its third and fourth singles both failed to reach Top 40. "Every Time I Get Around You" was also a #2 on the
RPM
Country Tracks charts in Canada, and was named as that publication's Number One country song for the year 1996.
[4]
Murphy's third and final album for MCA, titled
We Can't All Be Angels
, was released in 1997.
[5] In a 1997 interview, Murphy revealed that he had intended for this album to be experimental in nature, saying that he "wanted to create just a whole different tone, sonically. I just wanted a different sounding record."
We Can't All Be Angels
sold even lower than
Out With a Bang
had; its two singles, "All Lit up in Love" and "Just Don't Wait Around 'Til She's Leavin'", peaked at #25 and #37, respectively, on the country charts. By 1998, Murphy was dropped from MCA's roster.
2000s
By the 2000s, Murphy had shifted his focus to songwriting. One of his first cuts in the 2000s was the title track to
Aaron Tippin's 2000 album
People Like Us
; this song was a Top 20 for Tippin in 2001.
Trick Pony also entered the country Top 20 one year later with another one of Murphy's compositions — the title track to their 2002 album
On a Mission
.
Murphy also co-wrote album cuts for several other artists, including
Brooks & Dunn,
Montgomery Gentry, and
Hank Williams, Jr.
Koch Entertainment signed Murphy to his second recording contract in 2004. That year, he released his fourth studio album,
Tryin' to Get There
. The album, whose title track was co-written by
Waylon Jennings prior to his death in 2002,
[6] produced the Top Five hit "Loco", which reached #5 in 2004. The only other single from
Tryin' to Get There
was "Inspiration", a collaboration with singer and guitarist
Lee Roy Parnell, which peaked at #48. Koch closed its Nashville division in early 2005, and Murphy was once again without a record deal. He did find continued success as a songwriter, most notably in 2006, as a co-writer on
Kenny Chesney's Number One single "
Living in Fast Forward". 2007 produced three more chart singles co-written by Murphy:
Gary Allan's "A Feelin' Like That" (co-written by Ira Dean, then a member of
Trick Pony),
Van Zant's "Goes Down Easy", and
Blake Shelton's "The More I Drink". 2008 saw the release of
Keith Anderson's "Somebody Needs a Hug" and the
Eli Young Band's "
Always the Love Songs", two more songs co-written by Murphy.
Jason Aldean charted in 2009 with "
Big Green Tractor", which Murphy wrote with
Jim Collins.
Charitable efforts
In 2000, Murphy hosted a series of concerts in his hometown of Herrin, Illinois, raising $25,000 for the Jack Murphy fund, which David Lee started in honor of his father, Dr. Jack Murphy, a local civic leader and educator.
[7]
Discography
Albums
Year
| Album details
| Peak chart positions
| Certifications (sales thresholds)
|
US Country
| US
| US Heat
| US Indie
| CAN Country
|
1994
| Out with a Bang
- Released: August 30, 1994
- Label: MCA
| 10
| 52
| 1
| —
| 2
|
|
1996
| Gettin' Out the Good Stuff
- Released: May 21, 1996
- Label: MCA
| 12
| 104
| —
| —
| 6
|
|
1997
| We Can't All Be Angels
- Released: September 23, 1997
- Label: MCA
| 39
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
|
2004
| Tryin' to Get There
- Released: March 23, 2004
- Label: Koch/Audium
| 46
| —
| —
| 32
| —
|
|
Singles
Year
| Title
| Chart Positions
| Album
|
US Country
| US
| CAN Country
|
1994
| "Just Once"
| 36
| —
| 28
| Out with a Bang
|
"Fish Ain't Bitin'"
| 52
| —
| 35
|
1995
| "Party Crowd"
| 6
| —
| 7
|
"Dust on the Bottle"
| 1
| —
| 9
|
"Out with a Bang"
| 13
| —
| 5
|
1996
| "Every Time I Get Around You"
| 2
| —
| 2
| Gettin' Out the Good Stuff
|
"The Road You Leave Behind"
| 5
| —
| 12
|
"She's Really Something to See"
| —
| —
| —
|
1997
| "Genuine Rednecks"
| 53
| —
| 84
|
"Breakfast in Birmingham"
| 51
| —
| 34
|
"All Lit Up in Love"
| 25
| —
| 21
| We Can't All Be Angels
|
"Just Don't Wait Around 'Til She's Leavin'"
| 37
| —
| 52
|
1998
| "We Can't All Be Angels"
| —
| —
| —
|
2004
| "Loco"
| 5
| 44
| 6
| Tryin' to Get There
|
"Inspiration" (with Lee Roy Parnell)
| 46
| —
| —
|
Music videos
Year
| Video
| Director
|
1994
| "Just Once"
| Charley Randazzo
|
"Fish Ain't Bitin'"
|
1995
| "Party Crowd"
| Chris Rogers
|
"Dust on the Bottle"
| Charley Randazzo
|
1996
| "The Road You Leave Behind"
| Michael Salomon
|
"She's Really Something to See"
|
1997
| "Genuine Rednecks"
| Michael Merriman
|
"All Lit Up in Love"
|
"Just Don't Wait Around 'Til She's Leavin'"
|
1998
| "We Can't All Be Angels"
|
References
- allmusic ((( David Lee Murphy > Biography )))
- David Lee Murphy: Biography
- David Lee Murphy biography
- Top 100 Country Tracks
- David Lee Murphy - Just for Kicks
- David Lee Murphy Gets "Loco" With New Album
- Murphy Performs for Charity