Songwriter Mark Gray, who penned Number One tunes for Alabama and Janie Fricke and had a string of Top Ten solo hits in the Eighties, died Friday, December 2nd, in Lebanon, Tennessee. He was 64.

He wrote hits like, “”Take Me Down” and “The Closer You Get,” for Alabama and Janie Fricke’s hit, “It Ain’t Easy Bein’ Easy”. Gray was also a member of the pop-country group Exile from 1979 to 1982.

To learn more about Gray’s long career in Country music, click here.