Dick Penner

Who is Dick Penner?

Allen Richard "Dick" Penner, is a retired professor of English, who, while in college in 1955, co-composed, with Wade Lee Moore "Ooby Dooby," which became a rockabilly hit for Roy Orbison. Penner also had been a singer, guitar player, and recording artist.

In 1956, Penner switched from country music to rock & roll. That same year, he and Wade Moore formed a duo and recorded for Sun Records. The duo was known as "Wade & Dick—The College Kids." Wade & Dick recorded three songs, "Wild Woman," "Don't Need Your Lovin'," and "Bop Bop Baby," which was included on the soundtrack of "Walk the Line," the film biography of Johnny Cash. Penner recorded four on his own. All four songs exhibited a hard, youthful edge that was targeted towards the then new teen market. Penner's four singles — "Move Baby Move," "Fine Little Baby," Sun 615a, and "Cindy Lou," and "Honey Love" Sun 282 consisted of both Rockabilly and ballads. The songs did not rise to the popularity of "Ooby Dooby;" which reached a formidable level on the national charts in Orbison's hands and, eventually, became regarded as a classic of the genre. Moore was in business following his college graduation. After receiving his M.A. from North Texas State, Penner earned a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. He was a professor of English at the University of Tennessee for thirty-two years until his retirement in 1990. Penner authored three academic books, his favorite being Fiction of the Absurd.