David Porter - Birthday Profile

David Porter is 81 today. Just where do you start with a profile of his hits? He was, of course, part of a writing team with the late Isaac Hayes and was born, bred and worked in Memphis, TN, the home of  the legendary Stax Records where he would write for artists such as Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Don Covay, Johnnie Taylor, Rufus Thomas, Sam & Dave, Mable John, Judy Clay, Eddie Floyd, The Bar-Kays, The Soul Children, The Emotions and probably just about every artist on the roster as well as Homer Banks and Wilson Pickett and many many more.

He is listed as one of the top 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2015 (positioned at 75 along with Isaac Hayes) and in 2005 was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He released a couple of singles in the early 60s, his first in 1961 on Eagle followed by three under pseudonyms. The first as Kenny Cain on Hi in 1962 and then a couple on Savoy as Little David in 1963.  In 1965 he released his only single for the Stax main label and it wasn't until 1970 that he followed it up with five singles and four albums on Stax subsidiary Enterprise between 1970-73.

In recent years he released "The Classics" (2019) which consists of his version of songs written for Sam & Dave along with a commentary for the history of each song - well worth a listen just for those! Note that the songs themselves are all instrumental versions. Coincidentally, "Soul Sister Brown Sugar" was one of the very first soul records and US imports I ever bought which has been flipped in more recent times for "Come On In" (also a Hayes & Porter composition).

On 23 Sep 2022 he released "Chapter 1: Back In The Day" consisting of songs he wrote decades ago and recorded with many of his Stax mates but remained unreleased. They have been re-recorded with vocals shared amongst new artists Brandon Wattz, Candise Marshall and Marcus Scott.

He graduated from Booker T High School with Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire who died in 2016 and this album has been dedicated to him. 

Porter had a relatively limited recording history but of course wrote and co-wrote with Hayes hundreds songs, so I'll endeavour to cherry pick many of them for the playlist below mixed in with some of his own solo recordings.

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