From www.thisistrue.com
THIS WEEK'S HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to Otis Blackwell.
A songwriter, Blackwell was the brains behind some of rock and roll's greatest hits. He wrote over 1,000 songs, including "All Shook Up", "Return to Sender" and "Don't Be Cruel" for Elvis Presley.
"Otis wrote in a style that came to define a new synthesis that Elvis was groping for," said Presley's biographer, Peter Guralnick. "From the first moment Elvis heard 'Don't Be Cruel,' he just snapped on it. It was a perfect song for him."
Yet Blackwell and Presley never met.
Blackwell also wrote Jerry Lee Lewis's classic "Great Balls of Fire", as well as such Lewis hits as "Breathless" and "Let's Talk About Us".
Growing up in Brooklyn, Blackwell was inspired by Tex Ritter singing cowboy movies.
"Like the blues, [cowboy music] told a story," he once said. "But it didn't have the same restrictive construction. A cowboy song could do anything."
Blackwell died May 6 in Nashville from a heart attack. He was 70.
More here: Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame |
