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Dick Holler

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Musician

The Resume

    (October 16, 1934- )
    Born in Indianapolis, Indiana
    Birth name is Richard Louis Holler
    Lead singer for The Rockets (later Dick Holler and the Holidays; 1956 - 66)
    Recorded 'I Trusted You,' 'Mooba Grooba,' 'Hey Little Fool,' and 'Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)'
    Wrote hits 'Abraham, Martin, and John' and 'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron'
    Also wrote 'Crossfire,' 'The Greatest Song I Ever Heard,' 'Mama Where Will the Love Come From,' 'Section C,' 'The Albatross,' 'Cole Cook and Reading,' and 'Never Been a Horse'

Why he might be annoying:

    His own rendition of his songs would always be overshadowed by more famous artists who covered them.
    He got his break performing on a local TV Teen show 'Hit or Miss' with a young Donna Douglas and Rex Reed.
    He started out as the pianist for the local 'Dixie Cats' band, but the club owner who signed them opted to promote him as the group's front-man over lead singer Jimmy Clanton.
    'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron' was really just a reworked version of a Baton Rouge song he had written years earlier, which had two verses and no mention of Snoopy at all.
    Actually, it was music producer Phil Gernhard who brought Snoopy into the song after seeing a Peanuts cartoons strip, which gave him the idea to rename the song after the character.
    He and Gernhard were sued successfully by Charles Schulz for royalties after the song's release for use of the character without his permission (although Schultz would later allow him to pen future 'Baron' songs and even contributed album artwork for 'Snoopy and His Friends').

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
    Johnny Rivers got his start performing in his group.
    The Royal Guardsmen's recording of 'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron' spent four weeks at #2 on the Hot 100 singles charts in the U.S. (#8 in the United Kingdom).
    He wrote 'Abraham, Martin, and John' in less than 25 minutes as a reaction to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy in 1968.
    Dion's recording of 'Abraham, Martin, and John' reached #4 in the Billboard Top Five (Dec. 1968).
    'Abraham, Martin, and John' has become a folk-pop standard worldwide and has been covered by artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, and Ray Charles.
    'Abraham, Martin and John' received the BMI Four Million Airplay award, making it one of the most prestigious songs of the 20th-century.
    He rerecorded 'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron' song with several members of his family to coincide with the release of the 'Peanuts Movie,' and it sold on iTunes and Amazon (2015).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying