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Otis Blackwell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otis Blackwell (16 February 1932 – 6 May 2002) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist whose work significantly influenced rock'n'roll. His compositions include Little Willie John's "Fever", Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" and "Breathless", Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel", "All Shook Up" and "Return to Sender" (with Winfield Scott), and Jimmy Jones' "Handy Man".[1]
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Otis Blackwell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Nashville, Tennessee. He first became famous by winning a local talent contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.[2]
Blackwell was one of the leading figures of early rock 'n' roll, although he was not well known by the public. His own records never cracked the Top 40, yet he wrote million-selling songs for Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dee Clark and others. He also recruited other songwriters to write for Presley such as Winfield Scott.[3] When he was having a contract dispute with his publishing company, he also wrote under the white-sounding pen-name of "John Davenport".[2] Throughout his lifetime, Blackwell composed more than a thousand songs, garnering worldwide sales of close to 200 million records.[4]
Many of the songs Blackwell wrote also listed the recording artist and others as co-writers. This was the prevailing practise at the time, because the only royalties an artist could be sure of receiving was those from song-writing. That was the price a writer paid for having top-notch talent record their work. But Blackwell did not mind, preferring to be in the shadows.
Otis Blackwell was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986 and in 1991 into the National Academy of Popular Music's Songwriters Hall of Fame.[2]
Otis Blackwell died in 2002 of a heart attack and was interred in Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville.
Otis Blackwell was one of the greatest R&B songwriters of all time.[5] His songwriting style is as uniquely indentifiable as that of Leiber and Stoller, Chuck Berry, or Willie Dixon and helped redefine popular music in America in the 1950s.[4] This is true even though he often collaborated with such partners as Winfield Scott, Eddie Cooley, and Jack Hammer. Blackwell was one of the most important innovators who helped invent the musical vocabulary of rock & roll at its very beginning.[1]
Songs he composed, with the performer who made them famous, include:
- "All Shook Up" (Elvis Presley)
- "Don't Be Cruel" (Elvis Presley)
- "Fever" as "John Davenport" with Eddie Cooley (Peggy Lee, Madonna, The McCoys and countless other performers)
- "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis)
- "Breathless" (Jerry Lee Lewis)
- "Hey Little Girl" (Dee Clark)
- "Handy Man" (Jimmy Jones, Del Shannon, James Taylor)
- "Return to Sender" (Elvis Presley)
- ^ a b Otis Blackwell - Biography. allmusic. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.
- ^ a b c Otis Blackwell (1931-2002). Spectropop. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.
- ^ Winfield Scott. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.
- ^ a b Otis Blackwell - Biography. Songwriters Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.
- ^ Holly George-Warren &, Anthony Decurtis (Eds.) (1976). The RollingStone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, 3rd Edition, New York: Random House, p. 27. ISBN 0-679-73728-6.