Billy Sherrill
b. Philip Campbell, 5 November 1936, Winston, Alabama, USA. Sherrill's father was a travelling evangelist—he is shown on horseback on the cover of Charlie Rich's album SILVER LININGS- and Sherrill played piano at his meetings. He also played saxophone in a local rock 'n roll band, Benny Cagle and the Rhythm Swingsters. In 1956 he left to work with Rick Hall in the R&B-styled Fairlanes. His 1958 Mercury single, Like Making Love, was covered for the UK market by Marty Wilde, and he had some success in Alabama with an instrumental, Tipsy, in 1960. He worked for Sun Records' new Nashville studios from 1961 to 1964; in particular, he brought out Charlie Rich's talent as a blues singer. He and Rick Hall then established the Fame studios in Nashville. In 1964 he started working for Columbia Records and he produced R&B records by Ted Taylor and the Staple Singers as well as an album by Elvis Presley's guitarist, Scotty Moore, THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD. He co-wrote and produced David Houston's US number l country hit, Almost Persuaded, and his subsequent hits with Houston include a duet with Tammy Wynette, My Elusive Dreams. It was Sherrill who discovered Wynette and in 1968 they wrote Stand By Your Man in half an hour and recorded it immediately. Although Sherrill's records crossed over to the pop market, he did not avoid country music instruments such as the steel guitar, although he did favour lavish orchestrations. He also discovered Tanya Tucker, Janie Frickie and Lacy J. Dalton, and has made successful records with Charlie Rich (Behind Closed Doors, The Most Beautiful Girl), George Jones, Marty Robbins and Barbara Mandrell. He became a freelance producer in 1980 but he continued to work with many of the same artists. He has produced over 10 albums apiece for David Allan Coe, George Jones and Tammy Wynette; other credits include THE BARON for Johnny Cash and the soundtrack for the film, Take This Job And Shove It. His best works include two all-star country albums, MY VERY SPECIAL GUESTSwith George Jones, and FRIENDSHIP with Ray Charles. The friction between him and Elvis Costello whilst making the album, ALMOST BLUE, was shown on a UK television documentary, but the album did very well and yielded a Top 10 hit, A Good Year For The Roses.