Henry Glover

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Henry Glover (21 May 1921 – 7 April 1991^[1]), was an American songwriter, arranger, record producer and trumpeter. Glover was one of the first successful black executives in the music industry. He first rose to prominence in the late 1940s with the Syd Nathan independent (and white-owned) King label. Glover served at various times as a producer, arranger, songwriter (sometimes under the alias Henry Bernard), engineer, trumpet player, talent scout, A&R man, studio constructor, and later on as a label owner in his own right. Eclectic in his musical tastes, Glover worked with country, blues, R&B, pop, rock, and jazz artists over the course of his long career, plus he played a major role in building King Records into one of the biggest independents of its era.

1 Career
2 Death
3 Cover versions
4 Songwriting credits
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Career

Glover was born Henry Bernard Glover, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He grew up listening to all kinds of music on local radio, and as he got older, he moved freely among the different types of music available on the local club scene. A skilled trumpet player through high school and college, he joined Buddy Johnson's big band in early 1944, and with Lucky Millinder's orchestra as both a musician and arranger early in 1945. It was there that he met King Records founder Syd Nathan, who was impressed enough with Glover to hire him as an A&R man, with an eye towards beefing up King's roster in the area then dubbed "race music." Glover signed on and quickly proved himself in a variety of areas in addition to A&R, even physically helping to build King's first recording studio.

A country fan since his boyhood, he produced sessions for the label's already-established set of country artists, including The Delmore Brothers, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, Moon Mullican, Grandpa Jones, Wayne Raney, and The York Brothers among others. The Delmore Brothers concert in particular was groundbreaking: Glover co-wrote "Blues Stay Away from Me" with them, rearranging saxophonist Paul Williams' "The Hucklebuck" for country audiences; not only was the record a pre rock and roll fusion of black and white sensibilities, it also made Glover first black producer in country music history. His first success with black audiences came with Bull Moose Jackson's 1945 cover of Joe Liggins' "The Honeydripper", and over the next two years Glover helmed a steady stream of releases on King's subsidiary label, Queen Records.

In 1947, Nathan merged Queen directly into King, signalling a new level of racial integration that extended into his hiring policies, and made Glover something of a trailblazer. Meanwhile, Glover's success with the jump blues/early R&B market solidified his standing as Nathan's right-hand man. He signed artists like his old employer Millinder and Tiny Bradshaw, and went on to work with Wynonie Harris and Bill Doggett. Glover also produced and/or wrote for Hank Ballard & the Midnighters ("Teardrops on Your Letter"), Little Willie John (convincing him to record the original version of the standard "Fever"), James Brown, and the doo-wop vocal group, The Swallows. Meanwhile, Glover's composition "Drown in My Own Tears", originally recorded by the singer Lula Reed with pianist Sonny Thompson, and was memorably covered by Ray Charles, and ranked among the singer's early soul classics.

Glover then controlled King's New York office, while Nathan remained in the label's home base of Cincinnati. However in 1958, Glover split with King, and went to work for Morris Levy's Roulette label, which at the time featured mostly jazz and rock artists but was lacking in the R&B department. Glover worked to correct that imbalance while working with the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Sonny Stitt among others. He also produced Ronnie Hawkins. He befriended his backup band, the Hawks, and encouraged them in their independent ambitions. Glover later released one of their early singles as The Canadian Squires, prior to their becoming The Band.

In 1960, Billy Bland heard Titus Turner recording the song "Let the Little Girl Dance" in the studio, and demonstrated to Turner how to sing it (along with guitarist Mickey Baker and other session musicians). The event was recorded by Glover, and was eventually released as a single.^[2] The tune was a hit in the U.S., peaking at #11 on the Black Singles chart and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[3]

Glover hit big in 1961 by co-writing Joey Dee & the Starliters' number one smash "Peppermint Twist", and two years later, the surf/garage group, The Rivieras covered Glover's song "California Sun" for a Top Five hit (it was later recorded by The Ramones). Glover worked extensively with bluesman Louisiana Red during the early 1960s, and also set up his own label for a brief period, recording Larry Dale and Titus Turner. He later returned to King, and after Nathan's death in 1968, served as the head of the label until it was taken over by Starday.

He also produced The Essex.^[1]

In 1975, Band drummer Levon Helm invited Glover to come to Woodstock, and the two co-founded a label called RCO Productions, which released a couple of Helm's solo projects. The same year Glover produced Muddy Waters' Chess swansong album, The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album, which won a Grammy, and the following year he helmed Paul Butterfield's, Put It in Your Ear.

Glover was later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[edit] Death

He died of a heart attack in April 1991, in St. Albans, New York, at the age of 69.^[4] In addition to his daughter, of Syracuse, he is survived by his wife, Doris, and a son, Ware, also of St. Albans.^[5]