A master of soul looks back

Dan Penn was a high schooler when he wrote his first hit, said Garth Cartwright in The Guardian. The song was “Is a Blue Bird Blue,” which rockabilly star Conway Twitty took into the Top 40 in 1960. “I had the biggest head for a while,” says Penn, now

82. Many more hits would follow, with Penn melding his love of blues, soul, gospel, and country into songs for Percy Sledge, Clarence Carter, Wilson Picket, and Janis Joplin. In 1967, Aretha Franklin spent 11 weeks in the charts with “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” which Penn co-wrote with producer Chips Moman. Franklin had “an aura around her,” he recalls. “The girl was special, that was obvious.” Some artists got away from Penn. In 1969, Moman invited him to a recording session with Elvis Presley—to take photos. “People are amazed I didn’t say anything to Elvis but what would I have said? ‘Hey, you’re as pilled-up as me’?” Penn laughs. “I heard he was going to cut ‘Nobody’s Fool,’” a song Penn co-wrote with Bobby Emmons, “but then he died.” Penn’s hitmaking streak dried up in the ’70s, but he’s still writing songs in his home studio, and the old ones keep him afloat. “I’m always amazed when I hear who has recorded one of my songs,” he says. “Amazed and happy when I receive my royalties!”