Born March 18, 1943, in Abilene, Texas, songwriter Dennis Linde wrote Elvis Presley’s last Top Ten single, “Burning Love,” in 1972.
Nearly three decades later, a Linde-penned number gave the previously squeaky-clean Dixie Chicks their first foray into controversy with the country murder ballad “Goodbye Earl.”
In the 1980s, he wrote “Goodbye, Marie” for Kenny Rogers, but in the 1990s, the workhorse songwriting regimen paid huge dividends for Linde. Mark Chestnutt’s “Bubba Shot the Jukebox,” Joe Diffie’s “John Deere Green,” and Sammy Kershaw’s “Queen of My Double-Wide Trailer” featured characters and a setting within the unique world Linde created.
The map of Linde’s fictional town showed where the characters lived and their regular haunts. The spot where “Earl” finally met his maker and the water tower from “John Deere Green” were among the other places on Linde’s map.
Linde passed away in 2006.
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