Let’s give Dwight Twilley some love on his birthday.

The Dwight Twilley Band came along in 1976 and renewed my hope in rock ‘n’ roll. I had pretty much stopped paying attention to new music in the mid-70s. There were some exceptions—Roxy Music, Marc Bolan, Bob Marley, Toots And The Maytals—but overall I couldn’t get with most of what was being unleashed on the airwaves. I spent my time listening to jazz and the blues, when I listened to music at all. But when Twilley came along he had the energy and hooks I’d been missing in pop music since the English Invasion and the psychedelic garage rock era in America. Twilley melded rockabilly with Beatlesque melodies, suburban rec-room rock and hard-driving riffs that paved the way for power pop and punk. TDTB played loud fast songs that felt classic and fresh at the same time.

TDTB were basically just two guys, Dwight and Phil Seymour, who grew up on a diet of The Beatles and the kind of honky tonk sound that permeated their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa Cats like Hank Thompson, Bob Wills and J.J. Cale can be heard in the way Twilley and Seymour toss that roadhouse swing into the Liverpool sound. And they definitely picked up on the spirit of Buddy Holly drifitin’ east from Lubbock.

TDTB’s first two albums, Sincerely and Twilley Don’t Mind, are knockouts, filled with one great pop tune after another. With their pretty boy good looks and solid live shows, they should have been big stars, but the usual record company problems and tension between Twilley and Seymour created the kind of bad mojo that has felled many a great band.

Phil Seymour pursued a solo career, but died of cancer in 1993. Dwight Twilley hasn’t stopped writing and recording. His last two abums, Green Blimp and Soundtrack, feature Twilley fired-up and writing some of the best and most personal songs of his career. Good stuff from a rocker whose musical punch hasn’t softened as he’s grown older.

Here’s some footage of The Dwight Twilley Band with guest guitarist Tom Petty on the short-lived CBS children’s show Wacko from 1977. The YouTube clip says “1978” but I’m pretty sure that’s wrong. Wacko ran for 10 episodes in 1977. It never made it to ‘78.