| One of the biggest selling disco records is also one of it's most hated....at least by disco music purists. Dees launched his radio career at the age of 17, as host of a country music show. Switching to Top 40, he hosted shows on Winston-Salem's WTOB and Raleigh's WKIX, while studying radio/TV/motion pictures and acting at the University of North Carolina. He recorded "Disco Duck" with an array of top session musicians while hosting a show for WHBQ in Memphis in 1977. The single went on to sell more than six million copies. Dees then followed it with the equally distasteful 12" singles of "DIs-Gorilla," "Big Foot" and "You Got Those Lips." Obviously and thankfully lightning did not strike twice and none of them were even remotely successful. But that didn't stop Rick. He began hosting a morning show for KIIS-FM in Los Angeles in 1982 and he's still there today. Although he veered toward television as the host of talk shows in 1990 and 1991 and a music show, "Solid Gold," Dees mostly focuses on radio. His show, Weekly Top 40 Countdown, is heard weekly by more than 50 million people. The recipient of ten consecutive Billboard Number One Radio Personality of America awards and a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, he's appeared in such films as La Bamba and Jetsons: The Movie. |
