Rory Michael Bourke, the prolific and beloved Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member whose catalog included Charlie Rich's "The Most Beautiful Girl," George Strait's "You Look So Good in Love" and Anne Murray's "A Little Good News," died on Oct. 10. He was 84.
His remarkable career spanned more than five decades, earning four Grammy nominations, three ASCAP country songwriter of the year honors and recordings by artists ranging from Dolly Parton and Conway Twitty to Tim McGraw and Jo Dee Messina.
Despite his success, Bourke believed every collaborator had something to teach him, regardless of experience. His guiding philosophy for songwriting reflected that. In writing rooms, he would say: "I don't know anything, you don't know anything, but
together, we just might know something."
He is survived by his wife, Rita, and their three daughters, Allyson, Kelley and Leslie. He will be remembered at the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame dinner on Oct. 26.
From Cleveland to Music Row
Bourke was born on July 14, 1942. He was making solo trips by age 6 from his childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio, to downtown movie theaters.
The bold, resourceful youngster didn't have money for transportation, so he would wait at a bus stop and ask the driver whether any free rides were available for children. If the answer was yes, he climbed aboard. Once downtown, he would sneak into theaters to watch Hollywood musicals starring Judy Garland and other performers of the era.
The colorful productions sparked a lifelong fascination with movies. Decades later, after writing some of country music's biggest hits, Bourke still fell asleep every night with an old MGM musical playing on television.
"That was his joy," his daughter Allyson Bourke told The Tennessean.
In the early 1960s, while attending Mount St. Mary's College in Maryland, Bourke heard older students playing an electric guitar in his dormitory.
He bought one for himself and began experimenting with melodies and lyrics, eventually finding work performing folk songs at a coffeehouse called the Purple Onion. His pay was 50 cents a night and all the coffee he could drink.
It was there that he met his future wife, Rita Welty.
"We just went, a bunch of us girls went to hear him sing these folk songs," Rita recalled.
They married in August 1964, beginning a 62-year marriage.
After college, Bourke worked for the New York Central Railroad, tracking down missing freight cars. Restless in a job that offered stability but little creative fulfillment, he scribbled song lyrics on scraps of yellow paper while waiting for telephone calls.
He eventually abandoned the railroad job and its promise of a steady pension to work in a record store.
That unlikely career gamble led to an opportunity at Mercury Records. During his job interview at the label, record executive Shelley Turk was on the telephone, angrily demanding that someone do a better job promoting a particular record. When she hung up, she turned to Bourke and challenged him to identify the song.
Thanks to his time stocking shelves at the record store, he knew the answer: "It's record number 20805, Lesley Gore's 'It's My Party.'"
"You've got the job," Turk told him.
So he began promoting records in Cleveland before moving into a national promotions position in Chicago. His work included artists such as Roger Miller, Jerry Lee Lewis and James Brown.
But the aspiring songwriter had ambitions beyond promoting other people's records.
An Elvis-sized breakthrough
Bourke's first major success arrived in 1970 when Elvis Presley recorded "Patch It Up."
For a songwriter who had spent years writing lyrics during lunch breaks, having the King of Rock 'n' Roll record Bourke's work was an extraordinary beginning.
In 1973, Presley would record another Bourke composition, "Your Love's Been a Long Time Coming," which the songwriter wrote about the birth of his eldest daughter, Allyson.
According to Allyson, Presley's producer initially struggled to get the singer interested in the song. Determined to get his attention, the producer told a member of the Imperials, Presley's backup vocal group, that Elvis had given them permission to record it.
When the backup singer thanked Presley, he was confused.
"What song?" Presley asked.
Then the producer played the recording, and Presley decided he wanted the song for himself.
Another early Bourke composition became one of the defining country hits of the 1970s.
While working in Chicago, Bourke befriended songwriter Norro Wilson, who visited the family's apartment. After a lively night out, the two returned home having indulged in more than a few drinks.
Rita was unimpressed.
The following morning, Bourke and Wilson sat down and wrote the first verse and chorus of what would become "The Most Beautiful Girl," a song of remorse with a heartbroken protagonist who said hurtful words to the woman he loved.
Bourke completed the second verse later and mailed it to Wilson.
The song reached Charlie Rich, whose 1973 recording topped both the country and pop charts. Billy Sherrill also received a songwriting credit.
'A little good news'
Among Bourke's most enduring partnerships was his close friendship and prolific creative collaboration with songwriter Charlie Black.
The two began writing together in 1979, producing hits for Murray and other artists.
One of their best-known compositions, "A Little Good News," came together under unusual circumstances.
Allyson said her father had been named songwriter of the year the previous evening. The following morning, a scheduled songwriting appointment fell through when another writer became ill.
Bourke called Black.
"Last night I was songwriter of the year. Today I can't find anybody to write with me," he joked.
Black invited him over to join a writing session with Tommy Rocco.
When Bourke arrived at Black's house, the songwriters were watching television coverage of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, which had been shot down by Soviet fighter aircraft, killing all 269 people aboard.
The tragedy prompted Black to remark that they could use a little good news. The three men walked into another room and began writing what became Anne Murray's 1983 song that become a No. 1 country hit and won the CMA Award for single of the year.
"That song was waiting for us in that room," Bourke later told his daughter Allyson.
Bourke's catalog also included "Do You Love as Good as You Look" by the Bellamy Brothers, "I Know a Heartache When I See One" by Jennifer Warnes, "I Couldn't See You Leavin'" by Conway Twitty and "Bye Bye" by Jo Dee Messina.
He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989. Throughout his career, Bourke viewed songwriting as a shared creative process.
"I like to write with people who are throwing a lot of stuff out back and forth. I write some melody. I write some lyrics," Bourke said in a 2014 interview with Music Starts Here. "I've always felt that my greatest ability is when I think of myself as a writer, I think of myself as like an umbrella over the project."
"I hear words and music at the same time," he added. "And the sound of those words and music coming at me are sort of like a canvas that a painter would use. Things look out of place or don't look right, and that's what tells me that that needs to be fixed."
Beyond his own success, Bourke also influenced other songwriters, including country singer-songwriter Phil Vassar.
"Rory was a dear friend and hero," Vassar said to The Tennessean. "He and Charlie Black took me in and everything in my life changed."
A Nashville home 'full of words'
Bourke and Rita eventually made their home in Nashville's West Meade neighborhood a gathering place for songwriters, musicians and friends. Their Christmas parties attracted a who's who of the city's music community.
"Someone once said that this house that we live in is full of words," Rita said. "And I always thought that's really true."
Music remained an essential part of Bourke's daily life until shortly before his death.
For the past two years, songwriter Jim Moran visited the house every Tuesday and Friday to work with him. They continued writing together in the family's Florida room until approximately six weeks before Bourke died.
He also collaborated with Dutch country singer Waylon, whose real name is Willem Bijkerk.
Waylon joined writing sessions at the Bourke home, sometimes sitting in a blue chair near the fireplace and other times appearing on a computer screen from Amsterdam.
The collaborations produced several songs, including "Let's Get This Over With," which became a single for Waylon.
Rita said the family watched videos of enthusiastic crowds in Amsterdam performing a line dance to the song.
"I'm a songwriter. That's what I do. I have to do that," she recalled Bourke would tell people.
Bryan West is a music reporter at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Rory Bourke, legendary songwriter and Hall of Famer, dies at 84
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