Dan Penn

by Steve KurutzSongwriter/producer Dan Penn has been a quiet force behind Southern soul music for over thirty years. Always moving just out of view of the limelight, Penn has produced and written hits for the Box Tops, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin and Ronnie Milsap, among others. Originally from Vernon, Alabama, Penn began his career as a performer, leading several white R&B bands around the Muscle Shoals area. Achieving early success by selling a hit song to Conway Twitty (Is a Bluebird Blue?), the songwriter eventually moved to Memphis, joining producer Chips Moman at his American Studios. Together the two, along with Penns writing partner, organist Spooner Oldham, wrote and/or produced several hits for the Box Tops, such as The Letter and Cry Like a Baby, throughout the late 60s. Penn eventually returned to Muscle Shoals during the period when Atlantic Records vice president Jerry Wexler was bringing acts like Aretha Franklin and Solomon Burke down from New York to record there. This led to Franklin cutting the Penn/Oldham composition Do Right Woman, and for the next several years, Penn compositions such as Dark End of the Street, Woman Left Lonely and Im Your Puppet became soul classics and were recorded by such greats as James Carr, Janis Joplin and Dionne Warwick, respectively. Never really considered a performer, in 1994 Penn released the long awaited follow up to his 1973 solo album Nobodys Fool. This album contains Penn performances of songs that others are known for such as Im Your Puppet, as well as new material. Moments from This Theater followed in 1999.