Memphis Minute - January 21st
Before country hits and a movie career, he wrote a heart-wrenching song - actually, a couple of them. That’s what he did, this songwriter, like many others with writing credits before recording contracts. A couple of his songs found a voice in a “comeback” project. The singer hadn’t scored a Billboard top ten in several years - he was past his rock ‘n roll prime. Come back to Memphis, they told him. Well, it worked. The sessions with songs written by this songwriter and others, backed by a chameleon-like group that also worked with Neil Diamond, Dusty Springfield, and BJ Thomas, and produced by a Memphis legend, put three songs in the top ten, one topping the Hot 100. Of course you know him from his hit “One Hell of a Woman,” movie “North Dallas Forty,” and his own variety show. His “Don’t Cry Daddy” topped out at #6, and the “comeback” singer reached #3 with his sad tale of life in the worst part of the city. Of course the sessions were orchestrated by Chips Moman at his American Sound Studio with his “Memphis Boys” also responsible for producing chart-topper “Suspicious Minds” written by Mark James.
Here is birthday boy and host of The Mac Davis Show, celebrating 76 years today, with his own version of a great song he wrote for Elvis Presley.