The Life and Work of Jack Clement (Charlie Pride, Johnny Cash)

The Life and Work of Jack [Cowboy] Clement: Songwriter & Music Executive

Jack Clement a versatile music executive, had a remarkably long and varied music career working with array of singers and musicians. He shook the music industry with his innovations at Sun Records and is considered one of the most gifted and diverse men in country music.

Clement was born on April 5, 1931 in Whitehaven, Tennessee, USA, the son of a choir director. Jack began playing music during his teens, eventually mastering the fundamentals of guitar and other instruments. After a (1948-1952) stint in the U.S. Marines, he played in a band called the Tennessee Troupers. After attending college, Clement settled in Memphis (1956), where he started Fernwood Records with Slim Wallace, recording artists in a makeshift studio. Billy Lee Riley was the first singer to record for the project. Jack took some of his raw tapes to the Sun Records Studio to work up a mixed master. Upon hearing what Clement had produced, Sam Phillips, proprietor of Sun, hired him to be his assistant (1956).

Jack progressed to full engineering and producer duties and instituted important changes at Sun. He brought in superior equipment and hired a house band. Clement worked with Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Rich over the next three years. His work was especially important to the career of Johnny Cash. Jack penned material for Cash and also augmented the basic Tennessee Two sound with the piano accompaniment of Charlie Rich. The results he got working with Cash on "Ballad of a Teenaged Queen" (No. 1, 1958) and "Guess Things Happen That Way" (No. 1, 1058), which Clement also wrote, resulted in the label's most sustained country crossover singles. Further, the material he cut for Perkins, Orbison, Lewis and Rich, provided the best those rockabilly artists could deliver.

In 1959, Jack left Sun and moved to Nashville, accepting an offer to work for Chet Atkins. After a year of apprenticeship and a brief fling with his own label, Summer Records, Clement relocated to Beaumont, Texas. There, he started Hall-Clement Music with Bill Hall. A year later, he pitched the song, "She Thinks I Still Care" (No. 1, 1962) to George Jones. The Hall Clement collaboration helped launch the careers of songwriting team, Jerry Foster and Bill Rice, whom by 1970 had become one of the hottest writing teams in Nashville. Other songs spawned from the Texas operations, included Dickey Lee's "Patches" (No. 6, 1962), George Jones's "A Girl I Used To Know" (No. 3, 1962) and "Not What I Had In Mind" (No. 7, 1963). By the end of 1964, Clement had written two more songs for Cash, "The One on the Right is on the Left" (No. 2, 1966) and "Everybody Loves A Nut" (No. 17, 1966).

Jack moved back to Nashville in 1965. At first he worked as an independent producer and publisher of his own Jack Music. Then once again, he teamed with Chet Atkins, producing, engineering and scouting talent. In his capacity, he brought Charley Pride to RCA and began producing albums for Pride over a six year stretch. Despite the fact that RCA wouldn't circulate Pride's picture until they were sure his music would be accepted by radio disc jockeys, the label enjoyed the commercial fruits of a major discovery. With Clement overseeing most of his recordings, Charley was one of RCA's biggest country music stars from 1965 ~ 1980.

Artists who have recorded song titles published by Jack Clement run the gamut from country, rock, reggae to bluegrass - including the Joneses, George and Norah as well as those Williams', Don and Hank Jr. Some of Jack's best know compositions include, Miller's Cave," (Hank Snow, No. 9, 1960 & Bobby Bare: No. 4, 1964), Would You Take Another Chance on Me (Jerry Lee Lewis: No. 1, 1971), Pride's first two hits, "Just Between You and Me" (No. 9, 1966) and "I Know One" (No. 6, 1967).

In 1972, Clement launched the solo career of Don Williams through his JMI record label, a project that also introduced Allen Reynolds as a record producer. Their collaboration produced several major hits for Don. During the eighties, Clement began to scale back his activities, only occasionally accepted projects that interested him. Jack Clement currently hosts a weekly program on Sirius Satellite Radio called Outlaw Country. Jack was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1973) ~ RJB: Country Music Historian, 8/2010

Also See: The Life and Work of Jack [Cowboy] Clement: Jack's Tracks (1/2)

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[flomurdock]

I came here looking for something else. But that lick "Just Between You and Me" - an awesome one of a kind. But WHAT IS THIS?? This isn't it. This is a re-recording. Why would you use that in something that is to be a definitive history of anyone, let alone Cowboy Jack.

[flashbell]

@flomurdock , It is the original RCA single recording - RCA 9000) recording from 1966. Jerry Reed, Chip Young (guitar), Jack Clement (guitar/mandolin), Lloyd Green (steel), Roy Huskey (bass), Jerry Carrigan (drums), Hargus Pig Robbins (piano), Charlie McCoy (harmonica), (Sonny Osborne (banjo), Bobby Osborne (mandolin), The Nashville Edition (vocals).

[FAUSTORICCARDO]

Jack Clement. I know new (for me) C. Singer by you, Bell. Grazie

[jtls8]

Another great upload and info about a great song writer! Thank you so much!!!!