Dale & Grace began a short but successful career when they hit the top of U.S. charts in the autumn of 1963 with "I'm Leaving It Up to You." The single, a cover of an earlier Don & Dewey song, was the pair's first recording for the Montel label of Louisiana. Some credit it as the first swamp pop tune ever to claim the top spot on U.S. charts. The ballad also performed well in the U.K. but it did not enter the Top 40. Dale & Grace's second single, "Stop and Think It Over," became another hit for the duo when it rolled into the Top Ten in the U.S. that same year. Although the pair's debut album landed in the Top 100 in the U.S., their next single, "The Loneliest Night," was not as big a success as either of their first two singles or the album.
Dale Houston was a Mississippi native who grew up in Baton Rouge, LA, where he was exposed to the area's swamp pop and Cajun sounds. Grace Broussard hailed from Prairieville, LA, and was of Cajun descent. Van Broussard, her brother, helped forge the way for swamp pop. At various times, he performed in a duo with his sister, as half of Van & Titus, as a solo artist, and in later years led the Bayou Boogie Band. Dale & Grace had each worked as a solo act before forming their duo during the early '60s. Before parting ways in 1964, they also put out records through Hanna-Barbera and Guyden. They got back together for a short period about 30 years later. Following a second split, Houston put out A Lot of Good Miles Left in Me. The solo album was released on the local Lanor label. Donny & Marie Osmond covered Dale & Grace's first hit, "I'm Leaving It up to You," in 1974, giving Don & Dewey's song a third go-round and taking it into the Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic.
~ Linda Seida, All Music Guide
In 1995, Dale and Grace, having been reunited, were honored in Mississippi through resolutions of the Covington County Board of Supervisors and the Town of Seminary.
In 2000, Houston received the "Louisiana Living Legends Award" from the Public Broadcasting Service. Earlier, he was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame and the Gulf Coast Music Hall of Fame, both in 1998.
In 2007, newly-elected Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne announced that Houston and Broussard, along with John Fred and the Playboys founded by John Fred Gourrier (19412005) of Baton Rouge, were being named to the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame. To garner such an honor, one must have national or international recognition, said the museum director, Judith Bingham. Dale and Grace performed at the festival in Ferriday, where Houston had attended the ninth and tenth grades decades earlier at Ferriday High School.
In October 2007, Dale and Grace were inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in Baton Rouge.
Dale Houston died on September 27, 2007 at Wesley Medical Center in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was survived by four sons, Rusty Houston, of Lafayette, Chuck Houston of Monroe, Gary Wilson, of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Jeffrey Dale Houston, of Baton Rouge; two daughters, Vicki Lynn Houston-Hogg of Monroe, and Robin Houston Cannatella and her husband, John, of Baton Rouge; a brother, Don Houston and his wife, Barbara, of Cut Off in Lafourche Parish; two sisters, Judy Sykes and her husband, Tom, and Claudette Cascio, all of Sanford in Covington County; his singing partner, Grace Broussard, of Prairieville; seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. ~SOURCE: Wikipedia
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