A salute to Otis Blackwell – the songwriter who helped Elvis go global

I was reading the obituary of Jimmy Jones, the American singer who had big hits over here with “Handy Man” and “Good Timin’” in the early sixties, when the name of Otis Blackwell popped up as the producer of both records. Eventually, if you read about the history of American popular music in the '50s and '60s, Blackwell’s name will crop up. He’s up there with Leiber and Stoller as one of the greatest song-writers of the pre-Beatles era. For instance, there was this one:

Not to mention this one:

And this:

This wasn't bad, either:

And then there was “All Shook Up” (which introduced a brand-new phrase to the English language), “Breathless”, “Hey Little Girl” (Dee Clark), “Brace Yourself” (Ben E King), “Paralyzed”, “Let’s Talk About Us”, and “One Broken Heart for Sale”.

Although Blackwell claimed never to have met The King – he even turned down a chance to appear in Girls, Girls, Girls! in case meeting his cash-cow spoiled the flow – he seems to have played a key part in creating that bouncy, poppy,post-Sun Records style that turned Elvis into the biggest thing on the planet (for instance, “All Shook Up” was Elvis’s first UK No. 1). Here, showing just how in tune he was with Elvis’s desired direction, is Blackwell's demo recording of Paralyzed (I’m not sure lines “I’m gay every morning/ And at night I’m just the same” would pass muster these days.)

Blackwell was a performer as well as a songwriter – but he seems to have treated that part of his career as more of a hobby, only performing when he felt like it. Apart from versions of self-penned songs that were hits for other people (here’s his excellent version of “All Shook Up”), he recorded some absolute R&B classics of his own. Here are my three favourites:

Blackwell took a writing credit on Jimmy Jones's "Handy Man" - he tidied it up, true, but his main role was as the producer:

So, not only a great song-writer and performer, but an excellent producer as well.

Otis Blackwell died of a stroke in 2002. In 2010 he was a posthumous recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame.

Thanks for all the fun, Mr. Blackwell.