O.B. McClinton

Born Obie Burnett McClinton on 25 April 1940 in Senatobia, Mississippi, he passed away on 23 September 1987. Raised by a Baptist minister, he faced discouragement from pursuing R&B yet discovered comfort in country sounds instead. After a stint spinning records as a disc jockey at Memphis station WDIA, he built a songwriting career, crafting country-soul numbers for Otis Redding including “Keep Your Arms Around Me” and later pairing effectively with James Carr. Among the standout pieces he supplied that vocalist were the 1966 single “You’ve Got My Mind Messed Up” and “A Man Needs A Woman” from 1968. He later joined Stax Records as a staff songwriter and, beginning in January 1971, cut country sides for the label’s Enterprise imprint. Those releases mixed original material with covers such as Wilson Pickett’s “Don’t Let The Green Grass Fool You,” which became his highest-charting country single in 1972, and Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee.” A brief 1976 move to Mercury Records yielded the hit “Black Speck,” after which he shifted to Epic and notched roughly six modest C&W successes. One of the scarce Black performers to achieve lasting traction in country music, McClinton succumbed to abdominal cancer in September 1987.