Every Friday around 11 a.m. Central, it’s time for Classic Americana on Radio Heartland. We pull a special track from the archives or from deep in the shelves to spotlight a particular artist or song.

This week, we celebrate the singer-songwriter Paul Davis, who was born on April 21, 1948, in Meridian, Mississippi. He died 60 years and one day later, on April 22, 2008, in his hometown of Meridian. In those intervening years, however, Davis garnered notable achievement in music, given his chameleon-like ability to write songs that became hits in the genres of pop, country and soul music.

Davis joined his first band at age 18, and two years later, in 1968, he was signed as a writer at Malaco Records, a gospel and blues label based in Jackson, Mississippi. By 1970, he released his first album. Over the next 12 years, Davis released seven albums, bolstered by 16 singles. Every one of Davis’ singles landed in the Billboard Hot 100. A couple of his biggest hits include “I Go Crazy” and “Sweet Life,” songs we might today classify in the genre of Yacht Rock.

Davis’ most successful album was 1982’s Cool Night, which featured three Top 40 singles, including the nostalgic tune, “’65 Love Affair.” We’re going to listen to the title track, “Cool Night,” a song Paul Davis co-wrote with Brooklyn-born, Nashville-based songwriter Susan Collins (not to be confused with the United States Senator of the same name).

Later in his career, Davis enjoyed further success writing country hits for Marie Osmond and Tanya Tucker. As described by the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, “Davis was not a prolific writer, creating only five or six songs a year. But a strikingly high percentage of them became enormously successful.”

Classic Americana Playlist

External Link

Paul Davis – Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame

Paul Davis Fans – Facebook group