Brook Benton

From the very start of his recording career until its conclusion, Brook Benton embodied a silky smooth approach, channeling his rich baritone pipes into seven number one R&B hits along with eight additional Top Ten entries. Time spent on the gospel circuit came before his initial secular date for Okeh in 1953, yet real momentum arrived only after he joined forces with writer and producer Clyde Otis. Benton supplied co-writing and vocal work on hundreds of demos aimed at other performers, until Otis placed his frequent collaborator on the Mercury roster; the pair then introduced a lush, violin-studded take on conventional R&B that highlighted the singer’s intimate delivery.

Benton reached the pinnacle of the R&B charts in early 1959 with the heartfelt “It’s Just a Matter of Time,” then quickly followed with three further R&B leaders: “Thank You Pretty Baby,” “So Many Ways,” and “Kiddio.” Teaming with Mercury labelmate Dinah Washington, their playful exchanges on “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)” and “A Rockin’ Good Way” topped the R&B lists in 1960.

The opening years of the 1960s proved highly productive for Benton, though he departed Mercury several years afterward and moved among various imprints before resurfacing on Cotillion in 1970 with the atmospheric Tony Joe White ballad “Rainy Night in Georgia.” Benton later made a halfhearted bid to ride the disco wave, yet his string of hits had already concluded well before his passing in 1988.