Biography
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Born
21 November 1941 (age 82)
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Born In
Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, United States
David Porter (born November 21, 1941) is an American soul musician and member of Memphis group Circle O'Fire. Porter is best known as the songwriting and production partner of Isaac Hayes at Stax Records during the 1960s. He later became a Stax recording artist himself.
As house composers for Stax Records, Hayes and Porter penned most of Sam & Dave's hits, including "Soul Man", “I Thank You,” “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby” and "Hold On I'm Comin'". They also wrote material for Carla Thomas (“B-A-B-Y”), Johnnie Taylor (“I Got to Love Somebody’s Baby” and “I Had a Dream”), and The Soul Children. Starting in the late '60s, Hayes became increasingly involved in his own recording career, eventually leading to the end of the partnership. The Hayes-Porter duo composed 200 songs during their collaboration.
Porter then began recording his own albums for Stax. He also released on other labels under the pseudonyms Little David and Kenny Cain, and had done a single for Stax itself in 1965, "Can't See You When I Want To", a remake of which became a Top 30 RB hit for Porter, and he cut several albums for Stax in the early '70s, including a concept LP, "Victim of the Joke?".
Porter began working with songwriting partner Ronnie Williams, and later went on to engineer the brief relaunch of the Stax label in 1978, after the bankrupt label's assets were acquired by Fantasy Records.
He and Hayes received Pioneer Awards from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1999. On June 9, 2005, Porter was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Bill Withers, Steve Cropper, Robert B. Sherman, Richard M. Sherman, John Fogerty and his longtime writing partner Isaac Hayes.
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