1984 Van Stephenson – Modern Day Delilah
Van Stephenson was born in Ohio and moved to Nashville when he turned ten years old. He played in a few bands as a teenager and began writing songs. Crystal Gayle released one of the songs he wrote (Your Kisses Will) and reached the Country top ten in 1979. Other artists covered his songs as well.
Handshake Records signed Van to a recording contract and he released his first album in 1981. None of the song even got close to the top forty on the Hot 100.
His second album did much better. He co-wrote and sang the first single from the album, Modern Day Delilah, which reached #22 on the Hot 100 and #9 on the US Rock Chart in 1984.
Van’s next single, What The Big Girls Do, only reached #45 on the Hot 100, and he never reached the chart again.
Van recorded two more albums, but when no hit singles appeared, he concentrated on writing Country songs for other artists. He worked with Dave Robbins, writing a few songs for the band Restless Heart.
Henry Paul had been a member of the Southern Rock band The Outlaws through most of the seventies (the band’s biggest hits were There Goes Another Love Song and Green Grass and High Tides). By the early nineties, he left the group and began working with Van and Dave. The trio began performing as Firehawk before renaming themselves Blackhawk.
All three members of the group contributed vocals, and they often wrote songs together as well. Henry usually sang lead vocals and he and Van played guitars. Dave played keyboards.
The band had a long string of Country hits beginning in 1993, including seven top ten releases. Their biggest hit was probably 1994’s Every Once In A While.
Van developed melanoma (cancer) in the late nineties and had to leave the group. He had surgery in 2001 but died a few months later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Stephenson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhawk_(band)
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