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Rick Dees | |
|---|---|
 Dees in 1986 | |
| Born | Rigdon Osmond Dees III (1950-03-14)March 14, 1950 (age 75) Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Grimsley High School University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Occupation(s) | Radio personality, entertainer, comedic performer |
| Known for | |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Kevin Dees |
| Website | https://rick.com |
Rigdon Osmond Dees III (born March 14, 1950), best known asRick Dees, is an American entertainer, radio personality, comedian, actor, and voice artist, best known for his internationally syndicated radio showThe Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown and for the 1976 satirical novelty song "Disco Duck".
Dees is aPeople's Choice Award recipient, aGrammy-nominated performing artist, and Broadcast Hall of Fame inductee. He performed the title song for the filmMeatballs.[1] He co-founded theE. W. Scripps television networkFine Living, now theCooking Channel, and has hostedRick Dees in the Morning atKIIS-FM andKHHT inLos Angeles. Today he continues his own syndicated daily radio show,Daily Dees and the syndicatedRick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown.
Dees was born Rigdon Osmond Dees III inJacksonville, Florida, on March 14, 1950. He was raised inGreensboro, North Carolina. Dees graduated from Greensboro'sGrimsley High School and theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor's degree in motion pictures, TV, and radio.[2]
Dees began his radio career at aGreensboro radio station calledWGBG while still in high school.[3] He worked for various radio stations throughout the southeastern United States, including WCAR[4] (now known asWXYC) inChapel Hill, North Carolina;WSGN[5] inBirmingham, Alabama; andWKIX inRaleigh, North Carolina.[6]
His introduction to the international entertainment arena began while working atWMPS AM 680 ("The Great 68") inMemphis, Tennessee, during thedisco craze of the mid-to-late-1970s. He wrote and recorded "Disco Duck" in 1976; it sold more than six million copies. The song can be heard inSaturday Night Fever in a brief scene in which a group of older people were learning to "move their feet to the disco beat". While this platinum recording earned him aPeople's Choice Award for Favorite New Song,[7] and the BMI Award for record sales in one year[8],[citation needed] Dees was expressly forbidden from playing the song on the air by station management (rival stations refused to play it for fear of promoting their competition). Dees was fired from WMPS when he mentioned that his song, "Disco Duck", was almost number 1, and his own radio station would not let him play it. The station manager said it was aconflict of interest. Dees did not perform the actual duck vocals on the song since he could not "talk like a duck".[citation needed] The duck vocals were recorded at Shoestring Productions inMemphis, Tennessee by Ken Pruitt, who moved away before the song became popular, and the vocals for the duck were done by Michael Chesney of Memphis for the concert tour. Chesney had done some comedic voices for Dees prior to Disco Duck. The tour went from Disney World to New York City, billed asRick Dees and The Cast of Idiots. After a 45-daynon-compete clause in his contract was satisfied, Dees was hired byRKO Radio to do the morning show atWHBQ AM 560 in Memphis.[citation needed]
The success of Dees at their Memphis radio station, combined with his TV appearances and hit music, motivated station ownerRKO General to offer Rick the morning radio show inLos Angeles atKHJ (AM). Dees helped their ratings, but AM music radio was rapidly losing ground to FM. When KHJ switched to country music, Dees left KHJ, taking a morning position atKIIS-FM[9] in July 1981. In a short time, he turned KIIS-FM into the #1 revenue-generating radio station in America, with an asset value approaching half a billion dollars.
He began hisWeekly Top 40 countdown program, still currently insyndication, on the weekend of October 8–9, 1983 on 18 stations;[10] the show was created after Dees's station KIIS droppedAmerican Top 40 in a dispute over the playing of network commercials.[11][page needed] TheWeekly Top 40 has been heard each weekend in over 200 countries worldwide and theArmed Forces Radio Network. It is distributed domestically by Compass Media Networks and internationally by Dees Entertainment International (throughRadio Express). In December 2008, theWeekly Top 40 became the first English-speaking radio show to air in China. The syndicated Countdown is available in several different editions includingHit Radio (forcontemporary hit radio stations),Hot Adult (hot adult contemporary radio stations), 80s Edition and 90s Edition on terrestrial radio stations around the world.
After 23 years on radio station KIIS-FM, Dees left in February 2004 with no official explanation,[12] and he was replaced byRyan Seacrest. Dees returned to Los Angeles radio in August 2006 onKMVN, Movin 93.9, hosting the morning show along with Patti "Long Legs" Lopez and Mark Wong. On April 15, 2009, Movin 93.9 dismissed its radio personalities and changed the format toSpanish contemporary music after a leasing of the station to Mexico City business Grupo Radio Centro. Dees was one of the last voices on the station before the flip, redirecting listeners of his show to RICK.COM. On April 20, 2011, Dees returned for the second time, this time at KIIS's sister station KHHT, following the station's formatting shift to a Gold-based Rhythmic AC. His show at KHHT lasted for a year.
Dees continues distribution of hisRick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown globally to terrestrial radio stations and streaming in the U.S., making it the longest continuously running countdown featuring pop music in the world. He also continues to host the syndicatedDaily Dees show, and can be heard inHawaii onKohala Radio KNKR 96.1 FM each morning live.
Dees has garnered many accolades, including the Marconi Award, induction into both theNational Radio Hall of Fame, and theNational Association of Broadcasters Hall Of Fame. In 1984, he received a Grammy Award nomination for his comedy albumHurt Me Baby – Make Me Write Bad Checks and has since received the Grammy Governor's Award. His other comedy albums –I'm Not Crazy,Rick Dees Greatest Hit (The White Album), andPut It Where The Moon Don't Shine have also enjoyed worldwide success. He is an inductee in the North Carolina Music Hall Of Fame, the Tennessee Radio Hall Of Fame, has received the Billboard Radio Personality Of The Year award for 10 consecutive years,[9] received aPeople's Choice Award,[citation needed] and has been awarded a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.[13]
Dees, through his holding company Rick Dees Entertainment, would sign a deal withiHeartMedia in March 2025 enabling the company to access the archive ofWeekly Top 40, including the addition of 2 permanentiHeartRadio webstreams of the show's archival material, one focused on the current programs and a "Classic" channel focused on his old broadcasts from the 1980s to 2000s. As a promotion for the deal, he would briefly reunite with former co-host Ellen K during her morning show onKOST-FM on March 21 of that year.[14]
In television, Dees hosted his own late-night show[15] on theABC television network in the early 1990s,Into the Night Starring Rick Dees,[16] which ran for one season and was canceled due to low ratings.[17] He has guest-starred onRoseanne,Married... with Children,Diagnosis: Murder and many other hit shows. In addition, Dees hosted the syndicated seriesSolid Gold from Paramount Television, and his voice has been a part of numerous animated features, includingThe Flintstones, where he starred as Rock Dees, andJetsons: The Movie, where he voiced Rocket Rick.
In feature films, Dees starred inLa Bamba, portraying the iconicTed Quillin, theLos Angelesdisc jockey who helped launch Ritchie Valens's career.
His voice was heard as the radio DJ during the opening credits of the filmValley Girl, released in 1983.
In 2020, Dees provided the voice ofPeter Griffin's impression of him in theFamily Guy episode "La Famiglia Guy".
In 1984, Dees (and his record company) made a request of Marvin Fisher, the owner of the copyright in the music of the song "When Sunny Gets Blue", for permission to use the song in aparody of the performance byJohnny Mathis. Fisher refused to grant permission for the use. Dees decided to do a parody even without the permission of the copyright holder, using about 29 seconds of the song in a parody album titledPut It Where the Moon Don't Shine.
Fisher sued Dees forcopyright infringement. The trial court found that theparody song, titled "When Sonny Sniffs Glue," was clearly intended to "poke fun" at the style of singing for which Johnny Mathis was well known, and thus was not infringing. The decision was upheld on appeal, inFisher v. Dees794 F.2d 432 (9th Cir. 1986).[18]
In an unrelated 1991 case, Dees was successfully sued for $10 million in damages. The court found Dees and his business manager acted with "malice and oppression" in diverting profits from Dees's Top 40 countdown program and gave the judgment to a former business partner.[19]
| Year | Song | Billboard Hot 100 | Australia[20] | UK Singles Chart[21] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | "Disco Duck (Part One)" | #1 | #4 | #6 |
| 1977 | "Dis-Gorilla (Part One)" | #56 | – | – |
| 1978 | "Bigfoot" | #110 (Bub. Under) | – | – |
| 1984 | "Get Nekked" | #104 (Bub. Under) | – | – |
| 1984 | "Eat My Shorts" | #75 | – | – |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
