Twilley went on to record a solo album for Arista, Twilley, and proved conclusively that he could do it all himself -- songwriting, arranging, guitars, and piano. Record company problems continued to dog him, however, and the third Arista record, Blueprint, went unreleased, although a minor hit single, “Somebody to Love,” did come out in 1979.

After three years of legal strife while continuing to record, he got out of his Arista contract and Scuba Divers was released on EMI in early 1982. Twilley had another hit with a re-recorded version of “Somebody To Love.” During the year, he appeared frequently on the fledgling MTV channel, and was the subject of one of the very first MTV live concerts in July, 1982.

In 1984, Twilley released his biggest hit album, Jungle, which included the massive hit “Girls” (with a cameo by long-time friend Tom Petty); with a funny, Porky’s-inspired video, the song was in heavy rotation on MTV for six months. A second single, “Little Bit Of Love” also hit, and the third single “Why You Wanna Break My Heart” was included in a cover version on the mega-selling Wayne’s World soundtrack several years later.

After several years touring extensively in support of the hit album, Twilley was convinced to leave EMI and sign with a new company and promotions network. He recorded a new album, Wild Dogs for that label, Private Records. Two weeks before its release, he woke up to find the head of the company on network television as a key figure in the big payola/mafia scandal.

Twilley spent the next several years writing a critically acclaimed award winning book on long distance parenting called Questions From Dad (Charles H. Tuttle Company, 1994). Twilley was asked to speak in Washington D.C. for the Children’s Rights Council and made appearances on the Maury Povich Show and the Today show among others to promote the book.

He was neither inactive musically nor absent from the record bins during this time. The two Dwight Twilley Band were reissued twice (‘89/’90 and ‘95) with bonus tracks. In 1993, DCC issued a terrific collection of unreleased songs called The Great Lost Twilley Album from the Dwight Twilley Band’s Shelter years, with an additional five tracks from Blueprint as well. Twilley contributed tracks to the first Yellow Pills sampler (Big Deal Records), and to Come And Get It: A Tribute To Badfinger (Copper Records), and released two vinyl singles in France. In 1996, he released a CD career overview called XXI on The Right Stuff (recently reissued, itself). After the great earthquake in the Valley, Twilley returned to Tulsa to live in September 1994.

In 1999, Dwight Twilley recorded a new album, appropriately called Tulsa (Copper Records, reissued in England in 2000 on Castle/When! Records). The album met with glowing reviews (one called it the best album of his career!), and made many year end Best Of 1999 lists. Also in 1999, Not Lame Records issued a new collection of previously unissued tracks from Twilley’s archives, called Between the Cracks, Vol. 1 was also issued in England by Castle/When! in the summer of 2000.

As the new millennium begins, Twilley has launched his own record company, Big Oak Recording Group, LLC. The label’s first release, Dwight Twilley’s The Luck produced by Richard Podolor, is targeted for June 2001. The future looks bright indeed!

Now the king has returned and he is back and better than ever supporting his most recent releases, "Tulsa", "The Luck", "Have A Twilley Christmas", "47 Moons", and the first ever live Twilley, "Twilley, All Access".

Dwight Twilley Videos :

I'm on Fire

Girls

10,000 American Scuba Divers Dancin'

"Live in Tulsa" Video Sampler