‘Daddy’s Hands’ Singer Holly Dunn Passes Away

Holly Dunn, the daughter of a preacher from Texas who became one of the top female artists in Country Music during the “New Traditionalist” movement in the 1980s, has died following a battle with cancer. She was 59.

Born Holly Suzette Dunn on August 22, 1957 in San Antonio, she first performed professionally in a band called The Freedom Folk Singers, which travelled across the country. Music was always close to her heart, as she collaborated on many songs with her brother, Chris Waters. Following college, Dunn would take her dreams to Nashville, where she earned a publishing contract.

Her career took an upward turn in 1984 when Louise Mandrell recorded her composition “I’m Not Through Loving You Yet,” which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. Within a year, she had her own recording contract with MTM Records, a company owned by Mary Tyler Moore. Her first couple of singles failed to dent the charts, but her third, “Two Too Many,” hit the Top-40. It was the next single that would prove to be her breakthrough – “Daddy’s Hands.” Hitting the Top-10 in the summer of 1986, Dunn found herself landing on many of the “Top New Artists To Watch” lists.

The hits continued, with her sophomore album Cornerstone producing the hits “Only When I Love,” “Love Someone Like Me,” and the ultra-traditional “Strangers Again” each hitting the top 10. She collaborated with Michael Martin Murphey on the hit single “A Face In The Crowd,” which earned the pair several nominations in the Vocal Duet category. She took home the Horizon Award from the CMA in 1987, as well as the Top New Female Vocalist from the ACM that same year.

After MTM closed in 1989, she moved to Warner Brothers, and earned her first number one with “Are You Ever Gonna Love Me,” and was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. She collaborated with Kenny Rogers on the Top-30 hit “Maybe,” and also hit the pinnacle of the charts with “Are You Ever Gonna Love Me.”

In 1991, Dunn became involved in a controversy with her single “Maybe I Mean Yes,” which many radio stations refused to play because they felt it advocated date rape. Her career slowed considerably after that, as she left Warner Brothers in 1993.

She made a pair of albums for River North in the mid 1990s, and hit the charts one last time in 1995 with “I Am Who I Am.” From there, she went on to a radio career with WWWW in Detroit. She made one final album, Full Circle, in 2003, and retired from the music business not long after, focusing her attention on her paintings – becoming a partner in an art gallery in Santa Fe. Recently, she announced that she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and lost her battle with the disease this morning.

Funeral arrangements are pending.