Don Covay

The singer-songwriter Don Covay began his life in the music business as a warm-up act for Little Richard in the late 1950s touring with Richard's revue and also working as the star's chauffeur. From these humble beginnings Covay began to build a musical career, moving from label to label until he eventually landed at Columbia Records. His first chart success was with the single 'Pony Time' which made it into the charts and introduced a new dance craze to American audiences. A year later Chubby Checker recorded a version and it went to number one in the R&B Charts.

Covay's career as a performer often faltered and for some reason he struggled to maintain momentum working under his own name, meanwhile his career as a songwriter was going extremely well and he wrote songs for some of the biggest soul and R&B performers of the day. Artists such as Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett and Etta James had hits with Covay's songs, and Aretha Franklin won a Grammy Award for her 1968 version of 'Chain of Fools', a song Covay had written in the early 1950s. Covay's material also featured on albums by major rock bands such as The Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf and Small Faces.

Covay died of a stroke in 2015 aged 78 and left behind an extraordinary songwriting legacy spanning six decades and covering many genres including pop, rock, soul, R&B and rock & roll.