Rory Bourke obit

Rory Bourke, Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Famer, Dies At 84.

 He was not on the list.

Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Rory Bourke, who wrote Charlie Rich’s No. 1 hit “The Most Beautiful Girl” with Billy Sherrill and Norro Wilson, died Oct. 10. He was 84.

A Cleveland native, Bourke graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s College in 1964 and worked for the New York Central Railroad before joining the country division of Mercury Records in Nashville in 1969, rising to a national sales and promotion role. His song “Patch It Up” was the B-side of a Top 20 Elvis Presley single in 1970, and he decided to pursue songwriting as a career. He signed with Chappell Music in 1971, later wrote for PolyGram Music and formed his own publishing company in 1994.

Rich’s recording topped the country and pop charts in 1973. Starting in 1979, Bourke wrote frequently with Charlie Black, also a Hall of Fame member, on songs including Anne Murray’s “Shadows in the Moonlight” and “A Little Good News” and K.T. Oslin’s “Come Next Monday.” Other credits include George Strait’s “You Look So Good in Love,” written with Glen Ballard and Kerry Chater, and Jo Dee Messina’s “Bye, Bye,” written with Phil Vassar.

ASCAP named him Country Songwriter of the Year in 1975, 1979 and 1983, and he received four Grammy nominations for Best Country Song. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989.

Fellow Hall of Fame member Steve Bogard, whose October 2025 induction Bourke presented, wrote on Facebook on Sunday, Oct. 11: “When we moved to town, writing with Rory was the greatest confidence building and professional songwriting educational experience a newbie could ever hope for. Rory was a gentle, kind, caring man and that spirit still shines through in his wonderful songs.”