Otis Blackwell

Ok, here’s the man who wrote Little Willie John's "Fever," Elvis The Pelvis' "Don't Be Cruel" and "All Shook Up," Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" and "Breathless," and Jimmy Jones' "Handy Man" (just for starters). Otis Blackwell's songwriting style is as identifiable as that of Willie Dixon or Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. He helped formulate the musical vocabulary of rock & roll when the genre was barely breathing on its own. As a lad growing up in Brooklyn, he dug the Westerns that his favorite nearby cinema screened. At that point, Tex Ritter was Otis Blackwell's main man. By 1952, Blackwell parlayed a victory at an Apollo Theater talent show into a recording deal with veteran producer Joe Davis for RCA, switching to Davis' own Jay-Dee logo the next year. He was fairly prolific at Jay-Dee, enjoying success with the throbbing "Daddy Rollin' Stone" (later covered by the Who). He died on May 6, 2002 in his Nashville home.

Otis Blackwell - Daddy Rollin' Stone

Otis Blackwell - Oh! What A Wonderful Time