Wayland Holyfield, a hit-making songwriter who arrived in Nashville after quitting an advertising job and soon had country music’s stars recording his odes to cheating hearts, second chances and good buddies — among them the barroom anthem “Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer” — died May 6 at his home in Nashville. He was 82.

The death was confirmed by John Carland, a longtime friend, but no specific cause was noted.

Many of the more than 100 titles in Mr. Holyfield’s catalogue, either as co-writer or solo, became staples of the Nashville songbook since the 1970s. Mr. Holyfield’s credit appears on more than 40 top-10 country hits on the Billboard charts — including 14 that reached No. 1, such as “Could I Have This Dance” (co-written with Bob House), which was recorded by Anne Murray and used in the 1980 movie “Urban Cowboy” starring John Travolta. The song went on to become a wedding favorite.

In January 1993 in Washington, the Arkansas-born Mr. Holyfield performed his 1986 song “Arkansas (You Run Deep In Me)” at the presidential inauguration ceremonies for another native son, Bill Clinton. (The song had been adopted as one of the state’s official songs in 1987.)

Mr. Holyfield was, at his core, a balladeer. He sometimes slipped into rockabilly riffs or hard-driving country tempos. His sweet spot, however, was songs structured in ample melodies, rhyming choruses and cadence that many reviewers said evoked classic waltzes and piano sonatas. He said record executives sometimes pressed for songs written in a more rock-style beat, suggesting they might have broader appeal.

Mr. Holyfield tried it on occasion. In the late 1990s, he and co-writer J. Fred Knobloch gave a edgier sound to a song of love and memory, “Meanwhile.” No one seemed happy with the track. They rearranged the song in the traditional 3/4 time of a waltz. Country star George Strait added it to his 1999 album, “Always Never the Same.”

“Nobody likes a waltz — except the public,” Mr. Holyfield once said in a friendly jab at the whims of record labels.

Wayland Delano Holyfield was born in Mallettown, Ark., on March 15, 1942, and grew up in Little Rock. His father worked at a state hospital as head of the painting and maintenance crew, and his mother was a homemaker.

Mr. Holyfield taught himself piano using his sister’s sheet music, mostly Broadway hits and American classics. He also started taking violin lessons. “And I loved sports and, man, I hated to practice,” he recalled. “You know, staying in when everybody else is outside.” He switched to electric bass and joined a band, the Rebels, and began writing some of the songs.

Music, though, didn’t seem like a career at the time. He attended Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., on a basketball scholarship and then transferred to the University of Arkansas, graduating in 1965 with a marketing degree. He worked as an appliance salesman and later at Little Rock’s Brooks-Pollard Agency, writing advertising copy and handling accounts.

That lasted until the ad conference in the Canadian Rockies at Banff in the late 1960s. “I don’t wanna wake up at 55 saying, ‘Why didn’t I … I wish I’d…,’” he recalled thinking at the time. He went on tour with the country trio the General Store before packing everything in a moving van and heading to Nashville.

Mr. Holyfield and his wife, Nancy, rolled into the country music capital in 1972 in a Ryder moving van, but he had no resume as a songwriter and no day job to fall back on. His only credential was an album he cut there a year earlier with the General Store.

“Nashville is one of the song centers of the world,” Mr. Holyfield said in a 2013 oral history. “And things got to fall right for you.”

For Mr. Holyfield, it all came together rather quickly. He teamed up with another up-and-coming songwriter, Bob McDill. They were bouncing around ideas for a song celebrating the small-town South that Mr. Holyfield knew from Arkansas. Looking for inspiration, they wandered over to a Nashville drinking spot called the Bamboo Club.

The 1973 hit “Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer” — first recorded by Johnny Russell — flowed out of the scenes they witnessed. (Chuck Neese also had a songwriting credit.) Russell sang:

A cowboy is cussin’ the pinball machine
A drunk at the bar is gettin’ noisy and mean
And some guy on the phone says, ‘I’ll be home soon, dear’
Rednecks white socks and blue ribbon beer

Two years later, Mr. Holyfield’s first song to reach the top of the Billboard country chart was the love song “You’re My Best Friend,” performed by Don Williams. From there, many of country music’s biggest names looked to put their mark on Mr. Holyfield’s songs in 1977: Crystal Gayle singing “I’ll Do It All Over Again,” which Mr. Holyfield co-wrote with McDill; and Charley Pride recording “I’ll Be Leaving Alone,” co-written with Dickey Lee.

Williams had a string of hits of songs by Mr. Holyfield, including “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend” in 1977. The actor Telly Savalas (star of TV’s “Kojak”) also recorded a version that found a fan base in West Germany, and the song is still widely performed by bands from Berlin to Dublin with its memorable opening lines: “Coffee black, cigarettes/Start this day like all the rest.”

A song co-written by Mr. Holyfield and Williams, “Till The Rivers All Run Dry” (1975), was covered by British rocker Pete Townshend in a project separate from his band, the Who. Greek-born singer Nana Mouskouri did a version in French.

“That was very cool; so different. When I heard that I just played it over and over,” Mr. Holyfield said in an interview with the International Songwriters Association earlier this year.

On the Nashville scene, the list of performers who covered Mr. Holyfield’s songs stretched across decades: Waylon Jennings in 1974 (“The One I Sing My Love Songs To”); Tammy Wynette in 1978 (“The One Song I Never Could Write”); Randy Travis in 1988 (“The Blues In Black and White”). With McDill, he co-wrote Ronnie Milsap’s 1979 chart-topper “Nobody Likes Sad Songs.”

During the 1980s, Mr. Holyfield was part of a steady stream of songs that sold millions of copies as singles or albums, from 1981’s “You’ll Be Back (Every Night In My Dreams),” co-written with Russell and performed by the Statler Brothers, to “Down in Tennessee” (1985), recorded by John Anderson.

Mr. Holyfield gradually moved away from songwriting and took on roles representing Nashville’s music community. He lobbied lawmakers and testified to Congress in efforts to protect copyrights and royalties. Mr. Holyfield was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992.

Survivors include his wife of 53 years, the former Nancy Selig; three children; and three grandchildren.

Even as his career was soaring in the late 1970s, he acknowledged that he never really outgrew his boyhood self — the child who was inside practicing violin but wishing he was outside playing.

“I have to push myself,” he said in a 1978 interview. “I’m not a perfectionist. If I had my way, I’d be out playing golf or fishing.”