13 Facts About Otis Blackwell

Otis Blackwell was an American songwriter whose work influenced rock and roll.

Otis Blackwell recruited other songwriters to write for Presley, such as Winfield Scott.

Presley was not completely satisfied with the song, and with Otis Blackwell's consent re-wrote part of the lyrics.

Otis Blackwell composed more than a thousand songs, garnering worldwide sales of close to 200 million records.

In 1956, Otis Blackwell gave "Don't Be Cruel" to friend Frankie Valli's group, The Four Lovers, but as they were recording it he asked to take it back and in turn gave it to the up-and-coming Presley.

Otis Blackwell died of a heart attack in 2002 in Nashville, Tennessee, and was interred in Woodlawn Memorial Park.

Otis Blackwell was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986 and in 1991 into the National Academy of Popular Music's Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Otis Blackwell's crowning moment came in the late 1980s when the Black Rock Coalition, a prominent organization of black rock musicians, led by Vernon Reid, the lead guitarist of the band, Living Colour, held a tribute for him at the Prospect Park Bandshell in his native Brooklyn.

Otis Blackwell was named one of the 2010 recipients of Ahmet Ertegun Award in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 2022, Otis Blackwell was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Otis Blackwell was one of the most important innovators who helped invent the musical vocabulary of rock and roll at its very beginning.

Otis Blackwell's works have been recorded by a host of major artists, including Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, James Brown, The Who, Johnny Thunders, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty, the Judds, Carl Perkins, Lonnie Lee, and Peggy Lee, among numerous others.

At other times in his career, Otis Blackwell was successful as a record producer, having helped turn out hits for artists as diverse as Connie Francis, Mahalia Jackson, and Sal Mineo.