Musician. Benton was born Benjamin Franklin Peay on September 19, 1931, in Camden. His father was a bricklayer and choir director of a Methodist church. The young Benton delivered milk for a local dairy, sang with his father\u2019s choir and the Camden Jubilee Singers, and began writing songs.<\/p>\n
Benton moved to New York in 1948 and worked at a variety of odd jobs, performing with several gospel and rhythm-and-blues (R&B) groups and recording \u201cdemos\u201d of his and other writers\u2019 songs. He and partner Clyde Otis wrote hits for Nat King Cole (\u201cLooking Back\u201d) and Clyde McPhatter (\u201cA Lover\u2019s Question\u201d), among others. In 1959 Benton recorded \u201cIt\u2019s Just a Matter of Time,\u201d the first of twenty-three Top Forty hits in the next five years and the first of his eighteen million-sellers. \u201cEndlessly,\u201d \u201cSo Many Ways,\u201d \u201cThank You, Pretty Baby,\u201d \u201cFools Rush In,\u201d and \u201cKiddio\u201d followed within the next eighteen months. A 1960 pairing with the temperamental Dinah Washington was personally difficult, but \u201cBaby (You\u2019ve Got What It Takes)\u201d and \u201cRocking Good Way\u201d made the Top Ten. Some of Benton\u2019s other hits looked back to his gospel roots (\u201cShadrack\u201d) and cashed in on the folk-music craze (\u201cFrankie and Johnny,\u201d \u201cThe Boll Weevil Song\u201d).<\/p>\n
After the \u201cBritish Invasion\u201d by the Beatles and other groups, however, Mercury Records let Benton\u2019s contract lapse. He recorded several unsuccessful albums with different companies\u2013one included \u201cSan Francisco (Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair),\u201d \u201cOde to Billy Joe,\u201d and \u201cStick-to-it-ivity\u201d (\u201ca philosophical saga of Sam and Curly, two dissimilar frogs\u201d)\u2013and he covered hits by other artists ranging from Frank Sinatra (\u201cMy Way\u201d) to Johnny Cash (\u201cI Walk the Line\u201d) in genres ranging from country to disco. His only major hit after 1965 was his memorably languid version of \u201cRainy Night in Georgia\u201d (1970), recorded for Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records. He remained a popular nightclub and concert performer on the oldies circuit, however, especially in Great Britain.<\/p>\n
Benton will be remembered for some of the songs he wrote and for his stylish delivery. Opinions differ about the lush strings that often accompanied him\u2013roughly the R&B equivalent of the \u201cNashville Sound\u201d\u2013but his rich, gospel-inflected baritone recalled predecessors such as Billy Eckstine and set the stage for the explosion of \u201csoul music\u201d in the 1960s. He died in New York City on April 9, 1988, and was survived by his wife, Mary, and their four children.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrook Benton: On the Comeback Trail.\u201d Ebony <\/em>33 (May 1978): 164\u201366, 168.<\/p>\n French, Howard W. \u201cBrook Benton, Singer of Hit Tunes, Known for His Ballads, Dies at 56.\u201d New York Times, <\/em>April 10, 1988, p. 36.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Musician. Benton was born Benjamin Franklin Peay on September 19, 1931, in Camden. His father was a bricklayer and choir director of a Methodist church. The young Benton delivered milk for a local dairy, sang with his father\u2019s choir and the Camden Jubilee Singers, and began writing songs. Benton moved to New York in 1948 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","class_list":["post-6342","entry","type-entry","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ecms-a-z","ecms-african-americans","ecms-art","ecms-b","ecms-civil-rights-era-1955-1969","ecms-encyclopedia","ecms-horry-county","ecms-lowcountry","ecms-popular-culture","ecms-post-war-america-1946-1954","ecms-recreation-and-leisure","ecms-the-modern-state-1970-present"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n