Highly successful songwriter
Rory Michael Bourke has won more than 45 ASCAP awards, including Writer of the Year in 1975, 1979, and 1983. He has written or co-written a long list of hit songs, including the 1973 worldwide blockbuster for
Charlie Rich, "Most Beautiful Girl," which he co-wrote with
Billy Sherrill and
Norro Wilson.
Bourke, a 1989 inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, is also the recipient of a performance award from BMI. He developed an affinity for music during frequent childhood trips to the local movie theater in his hometown of Cleveland, OH, where he soaked up all of the MGM musicals that came through town, including the films of legendary dance men
Fred Astaire and
Gene Kelly. Before turning to songwriting, he was employed by the New York Central Railroad as a tracer. A 1964 graduate of Mount Saint Mary's College, he headed to Nashville that same year and found employment with Mercury C&W as a manager of promotion and sales. Early the following decade, he became acquainted with
Don Gant, who acted as the fledgling songwriter's mentor, and Chappell Music's
Henry Hunt gave
Bourke a songwriting contract in 1971. By the end of the '70s,
Bourke began co-writing with
Charlie Black. Among the songs
Bourke has written or helped write are
George Strait's "You Look So Good in Love,"
Conway Twitty's "I Couldn't See You Leavin'," and
Anne Murray's "Blessed Are the Believers," "Shadows in the Moonlight," and "A Little Good News." ~ Linda Seida, All Music Guide
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