Country Music and Muscle Shoals Great Walt Aldridge Has Died

He was the pride of Florence, Alabama. And he didn’t have to make a pilgrimage to Muscle Shoals just across the river to chase musical immortality. Muscle Shoals was his home. As a musician, songwriter, singer, engineer, and producer, Walt Aldridge touched and influenced many different aspects of country music. His passing at the age of 70 on November 19th is being mourned by many.

Songwriting and the many memorable hits Walt Aldridge penned is probably the place most music fans will recognize the name. After all, he was an inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017. It’s hard to imagine a country music world without Ronnie Milsap’s #1 hit “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me,” or Earl Thomas Conley’s “Holding Her and Loving You,” or Heartland’s “I Loved Her First.”

But where Walt Aldridge first started in music was as a staff engineer at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals—an acronym for Florence Alabama Music Enterprises. For 17 years, he was involved in the production of some 200 albums ranging from country, to rock, to soul, pop, and blues. Though he was a talented guitarist and singer himself, this invaluable experience watching one major record being made after another would become invaluable to Walt as he transitioned into the role of producer and hit songwriter.

When “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me” also became a Top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981, Walt Aldridge became a hot commodity in the songwriting realm. He would follow this up with Barbara Mandrell’s #1 “Till You’re Gone” in 1982. Other major hits early on included “She Sure Got Away With My Heart” by John Anderson in 1984, a host of Top 10 hits for T.G. Sheppard in 1985 via “One Owner Heart,” “Doncha” and “In Over My Heart,”and “Crime of Passion” by Ricky Van Shelton in 1987.

Many of these songs were co-written with frequent Walt Aldridge collaborator Tom Brasfield.

But one of the most remarkable things about Aldridge’s songwriting career was his longevity, and his prolific success. Songs written by Walt have been officially recorded in six consecutive decades, including songs recorded in 2025. This includes four decades of Top 40 country hits, which Aldridge amassed 56 total in his career. His success spanned into the ’90s with songs like “Deep Down” by Pam Tillis and “The Fear of Being Alone” by Reba McEntire.

Travis Tritt had a hit with Walt’s “Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde” in 2000, and Aldridge would once again make it to #1 as a songwriter with Heartland’s “I Loved Her First” in 2005. Walt Aldridge also wrote songs for George Strait, Alabama, Conway Twitty, Sammy Kershaw, Martina McBride, Little Texas, Tanya Tucker, Steve Wariner, Shenandoah, a young Blake Shelton and Tim McGraw, and many more. In the pop world, Lou Reed and Peter Cetera cut Walt Aldridge songs too.

All of this songwriting success often overshadows the fact that as a singer and guitar player, Walt Aldridge also found success as the frontman of the late ’80s, Epic-signed group The Shooters. With multiple Top 40 singles including the band’s hit “Borderline,” this gave Aldridge a taste of fame on the stage, not just off it.

But the “FAME” Walt Aldridge always cherished the most was that gaggle of recording studios in Muscle Shoals that gave rise to music that would influence the world over. Though he was in Nashville often, Florence just over the river from Muscle Shoals remained home, including Aldridge teaching at the University of North Alabama in the Entertainment Industry Department for a decade.

Just last week, a major exhibit celebrating the Muscle Shoals influence and sound opened at the Country Music Hall of Fame. You can be rest assured Walt Aldridge’s impact and legacy will be remembered there in the wake of his passing.

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