DANN PENN

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Songwriter/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 Penn's 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 "I'm 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 Nobody's Fool. This album contains Penn performances of songs that others are known for such as "I'm Your Puppet," as well as new material.
Moments from This Theater followed in 1999.

Review by Chris Nickson

If James Brown is Soul Brother Number One, you can make a very credible case for Dan Penn being number two. The Alabama native has had a hand in writing a fair number of classic soul songs, and here he commits his versions of them to tape for the first time, recording, of course, in Muscle Shoals, with their fabulous house band, and a horn section including former Memphis Horn member Wayne Jackson. It's a tall order Penn sets himself, offering himself up for comparison with greats like James Carr, Aretha Franklin, and James and Bobby Purify, who have sung his songs -- and that's just the start of the list. However, he comes out very well, beginning with a quiet take on"The Dark End of the Street," coming across like a note to a secret lover, rather than a cry of pain. "It Tears Me Up" conveys the anguish,"You Left the Water Running" bounces in its pain, and "Do Right Woman Do Right Man" is advice to a friend, instead of Aretha's extra freedom cry for equal rights."I'm Your Puppet" becomes a sigh of resignation. Given tracks like that, the other songs will inevitably suffer by comparison, and, to be fair, "Memphis Women and Chicken" is little more than a throwaway. But even the lesser-known material from a Craftsman-like Penn is head and shoulders above most of the competition, and "Zero Willpower," a song that he took 20 years to complete, has soul classic written all
over it, as good as the greatest hits. Penn can't just write 'em, he can perform 'em too, in a manner as soulful as the greats, as this record shows. The man deserves to be an American musical icon.
Biography by Steve Kurutz (Allmusic 4.25 starts out of 5)