Dan Penn - Do Right Man (1994)

Dan Penn is an American singer and songwriter.

Dan Penn had worked behind the scenes in the Muscle Shoals and Memphis music industries all through the 60s, but his own self-produced solo album didn't come out until 1973. A follow-up album produced by Jim Dickinson never saw release, and for the rest of the 70s and 80s Dan Penn apparently lived the quiet life after having relocated to Nashville, no doubt enjoying a steady income from the myriad of songs he had written in the 60s which were still being record by all sorts of artists as the years went by.

It wasn't until 1994 that he released another album of his own work. Do Right Man was recorded back at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with a number of old musician friends from his days in Muscle Shoals and Memphis - as well as his old writing partner Spooner Oldham, it featured Bobby Emmons, David Briggs, Reggie Young, Jimmy Johnson, David Hood and Roger Hawkins. It turned out to be a fantastic album, with an earthy and authentic country-soul sound, with Penn's more mature voice still in fine form. It included many of his own versions of songs he had originally written for other artists years before, including "Dark End Of The Street" (originally a hit for James Carr in '67), "It Tears Me Up" (Percy Sledge in '66), "I'm Your Puppet" (James & Bobby Purify in '66), "Do Right Woman" (Aretha Franklin in '67), "Zero Willpower" (Irma Thomas in '79) and "You Left The Water Running" (all sorts of different artists through the 60s and beyond).

Nobody's Fool (1973) <|> Moments From This Theatre (1999)
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Dan Penn - Is A Blue Bird Blue? (1959-1973)

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Dan Penn is an American singer and songwriter.

Dan Penn's first solo album came out in 1973, but he had been making recordings all the way through the 60s, most of them destined to be used as demos for songs recorded by other artists. Recently Ace Records released The Fame Recordings, which featured twenty four of his demos recorded at Fame Studios in 1964 and 1965. However there are still other obscure Dan Penn recordings to be heard, and this compilation brings together another twenty two of them, dating from 1959 to 1973. 

Before he decided to focus on songwriting and producing, he tried releasing singles under his own name (or pseudonyms such as Danny Lee and Lonnie Ray), but none of them ever went anywhere. The earliest was "Crazy Over You" b/w "You Don't Treat Me Right" on the Earth label in 1959. Other singles between 1962 and 1965 were "How's The World Treating You" b/w "Stop Calling Me Baby" (United Artists), "Close To Me" b/w "Let Them Talk" (Fame), "Just As I Am" b/w "Diamonds" (Fame), "I'm Your Puppet" b/w "Is A Blue Bird Blue" (MGM) and "Willie And The Hand Jive" b/w "I Need Someone" (MGM). "I'm Your Puppet" and "Just As I Am" can be found on The Fame Recordings, and all the other sides are here. After James & Bobby Purify took "I'm Your Puppet" to the Top 10 in 1966, Penn decided to focus just on songwriting and stopped releasing his own singles. Also featured here are five more great demos from his time at Fame which cannot be found on The Fame Recordings.

In 1967 he left Muscle Shoals for Memphis to work as a producer for Chips Moman's American Sound Studio. He never released any solo work whilst at American, which is a great shame, as two songs here from 1968 suggest he could have made a wonderful first album at this time - "Nice Place To Visit" and "Love Is Strange" (the former by Donnie Fritts, and the latter a dramatic reworking of the old Mickey & Sylvia hit) have big arrangements complete with strings and backing singers. The compilation is finished off by some early 70s recordings from his own Beautiful Sounds studio in Memphis, where he recorded his debut album.

Note that this compilation is pieced together from a variety of dusty sources, and some of the recordings aren't very good quality, so be prepared for some scratchy vinyl hiss!

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Dan Penn - Nobody's Fool (1973)

Dan Penn is an American singer and songwriter.

Dan Penn first tasted success as a songwriter whilst working at Rick Hall's Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He was responsible for an extensive canon of southern soul masterpieces, mostly co-authored with keyboard player Spooner Oldham. The one which gave him the most success in these early years was "I'm Your Puppet", which was taken to #6 on the pop chart by James & Bobby Purify in 1966.

The next milestone in his career was his meeting with producer/guitarist Chips Moman, with whom he struck up an instant friendship. Moman had been an integral part of Stax Records in its early days, but had gone out on his own in 1964 after a fall-out with owner Jim Stewart. When Penn met him he was setting up his own Memphis-based American Sound Studio. Together, Penn and Moman wrote two songs which would quickly become classics, and today are generally viewed as among the greatest southern soul songs of all time. "The Dark End Of The Street" was recorded by James Carr, who had a #10 R&B hit with it in 1967, and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" was recorded by Aretha Franklin the same year. 

Penn moved from Muscle Shoals to Memphis, to work as a producer for Moman's studio (Spooner Oldham soon followed him there as well). As a producer he was responsible for The Box Tops' 1967 #1 hit "The Letter", and he and Oldham wrote their follow-up hits "Cry Like A Baby" and "I Met Her In Church". During this late 60s period his songs continued to be recorded by a myriad of artists, many of them destined to be hidden away as album tracks, but many of them still becoming hits, especially on the R&B chart.

In 1970 Penn split with Moman, and had a go at building his own studio (Beautiful Sounds). He got to work finally recording his own debut album, which finally saw release in 1973 on Bell Records. It was a great mix of blue-eyed soul and country, with a big production style full of strings, horns and backing singers, more than a little reminiscent of Moman's best productions at American Sound (ie Elvis Presley's late 60s work). It had some good new songs, one of which ("I Hate You") was covered by Ronnie Milsap the same year, giving him his breakthrough country hit. There was also one well-chosen cover song, a soulful reading of John Fogerty's "Lodi".

It was a long time coming, and though Nobody's Fool was a fine album it didn't give Penn any success as a recording artist himself. He seemed to be destined to stay behind the scenes.

|> Do Right Man (1994)
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Dan Penn - The Fame Recordings (1964-1966)

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Dan Penn is an American singer and songwriter.

Born in Alabama in 1941, Dan Penn became an R&B enthusiast at a young age. He had himself a band, Dan Penn & The Pallbearers, who played around Alabama and Mississippi. He was the lead singer, and his wonderful voice made him more than capable of handling the music that at the time was exclusively the domain of black people. He also began to write songs, which gave him no small measure of success, his earliest hit being "Is A Bluebird Blue", which Conway Twitty took to #35 in 1960. He soon shifted his focus away from performing and towards writing, finding his home in the studio. The studio in question was Rick Hall's Fame Studios, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He recorded a few singles for Hall, but they didn't go anywhere, and so he focused on writing. With keyboardist Spooner Oldham as his main writing partner, he was responsible for a vast canon of works, songs recorded by the various R&B artists at Fame. His songs from this era included classics such as "I'm Your Puppet", "You Left The Water Running", "Rainbow Road", "It Tears Me Up", "(Take Me) Just As I Am" and "I'm Living Good". Among the artists that recorded these songs at Fame were Mitty Collier, Billy Young, James Barnett, Arthur Conley, James & Bobby Purify, Clarence Carter, Jimmy Hughes, Otis Redding, James Govan, Wilson Pickett, The Ovations, Joe Simon, Maurice & Mac, Laura Lee and Percy Sledge.

It is a real shame that Penn never released any of his own recordings during this period at Fame (his debut solo album didn't come until 1972). However recently a 24-track compilation of demos has been released, and it's turned out to be a real revelation! The original demo recordings of these songs, recorded with Oldham and the other musicians at Fame, are brilliant and easily good enough quality to have been released. In many cases they rival or better the full production versions from the other artists, and Penn's voice was at its finest at this stage in his career. The Fame Recordings thus makes for an incredible lost album, a vital piece in the puzzle that is 60s Southern soul. These recordings are both masterpieces of country-soul and perfect little pop songs; testimony to Penn's reputation as the elusive white hero in a scene which was dominated by black singers.

In 1966 Penn and Oldham left Fame, and moved to Memphis to work at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio. The songs that came from their partnership have since been covered by Arthur Alexander, James Carr, The Box Tops, Barbara Lynn, Solomon Burke, Tony Joe White, Irma Thomas, The Sweet Inspirations, Charlie Rich, Dionne Warwick, Etta James, Ronnie Milsap, Patti Labelle... The list goes on.

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