Dale Oliver
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| Dale Oliver | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | United States |
| Genre(s) | Country, Professional wrestling theme music |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar |
| Years active | 1992-present |
| Associated acts | BlackHawk |
Dale Oliver is a music composer who works for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling; he was formerly a guitarist in BackHawk, the backing band of the American country music group BlackHawk. Currently, Oliver serves mainly as a composer of theme music used in professional wrestling.
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[edit] Career
[edit] Music composer for TNA
Like his WWE counterpart Jim Johnston, and his (original) ECW counterpart Harry Slash, Oliver writes a huge percentage of TNA's entrance theme tunes including themes for pay-per-view broadcasts. Unlike Johnston, Oliver performs the vocals and instruments for most of the theme tunes himself.
Oliver has been subjected to some criticism in that some say a lot of the theme tunes he has composed are closely modelled on popular songs. For example, Christian Cage's theme on "My Last Breath" by Evanescence, and Christopher Daniels' theme on "Disposable Teens" by Marilyn Manson. Sometimes, as in Daniels' case, these songs are already identified with the wrestlers from their use in independent promotions.
Some of his best-known themes include the original "I Am" theme, used by A.J. Styles, and "I'm Everything", used by Marcus Bagwell, Apolo, Konnan, Team Mexico, Mexico's Most Wanted, the Spanish Announce Team, and virtually every Hispanic wrestler to ever wrestle in TNA. "I'm Everything" is widely considered to be one of Oliver's best theme songs, but bears obvious similarities to Carlos Santana's "Smooth".
The shortest song that Oliver has composed was Chris Candido's 39-second TNA theme, which was said to be a modification of one of Oliver's own songs called "Born and Raised" (similar to Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A."). Another one of Oliver's shortest songs was Roderick Strong's theme at 42 seconds.
Oliver has also been praised for his themes for competitors in the TNA X-Cup Tournaments.[citation needed]
Thus far, TNA has released four albums. They are NWA: TNA The Music, Vol. 1, NWA: TNA The Music, Vol. 2, 3rd Degree Burns: The Music of TNA Wrestling Vol. I, and Meltdown: The Music of TNA Wrestling Vol. 2.
[edit] Oliver's Remakes
[edit] Mainstream songs that have been used in TNA
| Wrestler/Event | Song |
|---|---|
| Christy Hemme | "Society Box" by Christy Hemme |
| Christy Hemme (Sacrifice 2006) | "Wasting Away" by Manic Drive |
| Insane Clown Posse | "Down With the Clown" by ICP |
| Lockdown 2008 | "Nothing To Lose" by Operator |
| Kazarian & Maverick Matt | "Bad Influence" by Less Than Zero |
| Shannon Moore (*) | "Chicken Huntin' (Slaughterhouse Mix)" by ICP |
| Slammiversary 2006(*)(TNA history package) | "Fighter" By Candlefuse |
| Slammiversary 2007 | "Boom Boom" by The LoCash Cowboys |
| Sting | "Yours" by tobyMac |
(*) Indicates that the theme has been used for at least 1 other wrestler/stable unrelated to the wrestler listed, but the wrestler listed is the most recent one to use it.
