Max Edward "Mark" Dinning (August 17, 1933 – March 22, 1986) was an American
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...
singer.
In February 1960, the song "
Teen Angel", written by his sister
Jean
Jean may refer to:
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* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
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* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
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(Eugenia) and her husband Red Surrey, reached number one on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart. Jean and two of her sisters, Virginia and Lucille, comprised
The Dinning Sisters, a popular singing trio in the 1940s. Additionally, Dinning is the uncle of
Dean Dinning, bass guitarist for
alternative rock
Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Toad the Wet Sprocket is an American alternative rock band formed in Santa Barbara, California, in 1986. The band at the time consisted of vocalist/guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss, ...
.
Biography
Dinning was born in
Manchester, Oklahoma, the youngest of nine children, and was raised on a farm near
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
, after his family relocated from
Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
. He followed his sisters and pursued a career in
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
and, in 1957,
record producer
A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...
Wesley Rose
Wesley Rose (born February 11, 1918 – April 26, 1990) was an American music industry executive and record producer.
Biography
The son of songwriter Fred Rose, he was born in Chicago and studied to become a chartered accountant. He eventu ...
signed him to a
recording contract
A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...
as Mark Dinning.
His
recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, re ...
efforts met with limited success until 1959, when "Teen Angel" became a hit. The lyrics, which told of the death of a teenage girl, were deemed by British radio stations to be too morbid to be aired, but it reached number 37 on the
UK Singles Chart.
In the U.S., it reached number one on the ''Billboard'' charts in early February 1960. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
.
He also was the original artist to record "What Will My Mary Say", a song later popularized by
Johnny Mathis
John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his 69-year career with singles of standard (music), standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as ...
in 1963.
Dinning had an
alcohol addiction
Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...
, which restricted his performances, and caused promoters to stop booking him as he faded from public view. Although Dinning never duplicated the success of "Teen Angel", he had three minor hit records in the ensuing years.
Dinning continued performing until his death from a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
in
Jefferson City, Missouri
Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Missouri. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 United States census, ranking as the List of cities in Missouri, 16th most popu ...
, at the age of 52 on March 22, 1986.
Discography
Albums
* ''Teen Angel'' (MGM 3828, 1960)
* ''Wanderin′'' (MGM 3855, 1960)
Singles
References
External links
Rockabilly.nl biography*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dinning, Mark
1933 births
1986 deaths
American male pop singers
Hickory Records artists
MGM Records artists
United Artists Records artists
Singers from Tennessee
People from Grant County, Oklahoma
20th-century American singers
20th-century American male singers