Career
1 on the Billboard Charts. Additionally, Dinning is the uncle of Dean Dinning, bass guitarist for Alternative Rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket. Max Edward Dinning was born in Manchester, Oklahoma, the youngest of nine children, and was raised on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee after his family relocated from Kansas.
His recording efforts met with limited success until 1959, when "Teen Angel" became a hit.
The lyrics, which told of the death of a teenage girl, were deemed by British radio stations to be too morbid to be aired, but it reached #37 on the United Kingdom Chart. lieutenant sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
Dinning had an alcohol addiction, which restricted his performances, and caused promoters to stop booking him as he faded from public view. Although Dinning never duplicated the success of "Teen Angel", he had three minor hit records in the ensuing years.
Dinning continued performing until his death from a heart attack in Jefferson City, Missouri, aged 52.