Henry Bernard Glover (May 21, 1921 – April 7, 1991) was an American music industry pioneer who succeeded in virtually every aspect of the music business – as an instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, arranger, conductor, studio engineer, studio designer, talent scout, record producer, label executive, and label owner.
Breaking barriers of race and genre, he launched careers, wrote and produced hit songs, brought unlikely people together, and established himself as an early African American entrepreneur inside the white-owned music business of the 20th century.
“Henry Glover was one of the most talented music industry entrepreneurs of the mid-twentieth century. The fact that he was black and working in an exclusively white executive environment makes his achievements all the more remarkable.” (The Henry Glover Story, Volume One, 1947-1951)
Henry was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas in the early 1920s, when the town was a well known spa and casino resort. Musicians like Duke Ellington, Louie Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Cab Calloway performed just a few blocks from the Glover home on “Black Broadway,” a wide avenue filled with nightclubs and concert venues. Growing up in Hot Springs, Henry became a musician and by the time he was in his early twenties was touring as a trumpet player with well known recording artists.
In the mid 1940s, Henry left the popular Lucky Millinder band to work in the A&R department of King Records, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. King was not only a white-owned company, it was a label that recorded “hillbilly” music, what we think of now as early country and bluegrass. Henry was quoted in Billboard magazine saying, “We at King worked with white country singers as well as back R&B artists. It seemed a natural thing to cross boundary lines. We weren’t afraid of intermarriages.” In his book, King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records, Jon Hartley Fox wrote: “Glover was a black man from the south, but he was as comfortable in the studio producing white country acts as he was producing rhythm and blues acts.”
“Henry Bernard Glover was country music’s first major African-American music executive, whose work paved the way for the rise of rock and roll in the mid-1950s.” (The Encyclopedia of Country Music) Henry said in an interview that Jay Mayo Williams was America’s first black music industry executive, and that “I was perhaps the second.”
At King, Henry began breaking barriers. Not only was he one of the first African Americans to be an executive at a white-owned record label, he was also “….probably the first Black producer in country music history.” (AllMusic) At King in the mid to late 1940s, Henry started the practice of bringing white and black musicians together to write, record and perform – “conducting racially mixed recording sessions, as well as encouraging [the label’s] country singers to record R&B songs and R&B singers to record country….” (The Encyclopedia of Arkansas) Under Henry’s creative leadership, King Records became one of the most successful independent labels of its time.
“….no producer straddled the country and R&B fields as successfully as Glover did.” (The Journal of Country Music) Henry “shaped the ‘country boogie’ sound….that heavily influenced rockabilly and rock music in the 1950s. (“Henry Glover: The Musical Alchemist of King Records” from The Birthplace of Country Music)
Henry wrote songs for King artists. His “Blues Stay Away From Me,” originally recorded by The Delmore Brothers, was later covered by The Band, Billy Strings, Bob Dylan, Carl Perkins, Doc Watson, The Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent, Jeff Beck, Joan Baez, k. d. lang, the actor John Reilly, The Judds, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Loretta Lynn, The Louvin Brothers, Mark Knopfler and the Notting Hillbillies, Merle Haggard, Ray Price, and Yo La Tengo. His song, “Drowning in My Own Tears,” recorded first by Lula Reed, became a #1 hit for Ray Charles – “ranked among the singer’s early classics” (AllMusic) – and was the second track on Aretha Franklin’s 1967 breakthrough album, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. It was also recorded by Billy Vera and the Beaters, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Billy Preston, Bobby Darin, Chet Atkins, Cory Henry, The Derek Trucks Band, Dinah Washington, Edgar Winter, Etta James, Gregg Allman, Janis Joplin, Jeff Beck, Jeff Buckley, Joe Cocker, Norah Jones, Paul Butterfield, Percy Sledge, Richie Havens, The Righteous Brothers, Simply Red, Solomon Burke, The Spencer Davis Group (Steve Winwood), and Stevie Wonder, to name just a few.
“Henry Glover was the first writer/producer in the American music industry, paving the way for….Phil Spector, Lieber & Stoller, and Burt Bacharach. …. (The Henry Glover Story, Volume One, 1947-1951)
Henry also helped design and build the King Records recording studio, developing electronics and designing one of the first studio echo chambers. It’s been said that one reason Henry left King in the late 1950s was that the owner was reluctant to start using 4-channel recording techniques. Talking about producing blues legend John Lee Hooker, Henry said: “His foot was his rhythm and I believe that my amplifying….I used a 4 x 8, 3/4 inch plywood board on the floor [and] put the microphone on his left foot to pick up the sound of his patting his foot as he played – had a lot to do with the influence of this four beat that they use today.” (Steve Tracy, Going to Cincinnati: A History of the Blues in the Queen City)
There’s long been disagreement about who recorded the first rock ‘n’ roll song. Many music historians believe it was Jackie Brenston with his song “Rocket 88,” recorded in March of 1951 in Memphis. But others say that Henry was producing true rock ‘n’ roll records in Cincinnati at least a year earlier. BMI’s David Sanjek wrote that Henry “intuited that the public was ready for material that bent established conventions and thereby helped to put in place a number of the crucial stylistic parameters that would in time lead to the emergence of rock and roll.” Henry was blending white country music and black R&B ten years before Elvis Presley made it popular in America.
“Glover broke down musical and cultural barriers in the United States, helped forge rock ‘n’ roll, and personified genre-busting artistic freedom.” (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
Henry was the first producer to record the song “Fever.” His 1956 version for Little Willie John went to #1 on the R&B charts and broke into the top 25 of Billboard’s Pop chart. “Fever” went on to be a classic, recorded by Ben E. King, Bette Midler, Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Brian Eno, Buddy Guy, Christina Aguilera, The Cramps, Danzig, Elvis Presley, Eva Cassidy, The Jam, James Brown, Junior Wells, Leon Russell, Link Wray, Madonna, Matt Bellamy (Muse), Michael Buble, Natalie Cole, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Peggy Lee, Petula Clark, Ray Charles, Rita Coolidge, Rita Moreno, Sarah Vaughn, Shirley Horn, and Suzi Quatro, among others.
The same year, a young artist named James Brown was signed by King Records. It’s hard to know how much Henry worked directly with the future “Godfather of Soul,” but several credible sources have written that Henry produced early tracks for James Brown, and James definitely recorded songs written by Henry, including “Tear Drops on Your Letter” and “I Love You, Yes I Do.”
In the late ’50s, Henry left King Records and started his own label. On October 12, 1959, Billboard magazine wrote: “Henry Glover has started his own label, Glover Records.” Turning down an offer from ABC, Henry moved to New York City a year later to work for Roulette Records. There, he produced and wrote for a broad array of talent, from some of the great names in jazz, like Dinah Washington, Lockjaw Davis, Sarah Vaughn, and Sonny Stitt, to leading pop, R&B, and rock artists. Henry’s song “California Sun,” recorded by Joe Jones in 1960, became a classic of “surf rock,” covered by artists including Annette Funicello, Brian Wilson, The Crickets, Chris Isaak, Dave Alvin, Dick Dale, Mike Love (Beach Boys), The Offspring, The Ramones (their version was used in The X-Files, Jackass: The Movie, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, and Oliver Stone’s The Doors), and The Ventures. A year later Henry had the #1 song in the nation, “Peppermint Twist”, which he co-wrote and produced for Joey Dee and the Starliters.
“Glover’s career illustrates the evolution of modern popular music from its beginnings in jazz and blues, through its mutation into rhythm and blues, rock ‘n’ roll, and pop, culminating in soul and rock music.” (from The Henry Glover Story, Volume One, 1947-1951)
After moving to New York, Henry began developing a young rock group called The Canadian Squires and produced their first recordings. Soon the Squires changed their name to The Band. Drummer Levon Helm wrote in his book, This Wheel’s on Fire, “Something clicked between Henry and me. I tried to put myself under the wing of this A&R genius (he’d talked Little Willie John into cutting ‘Fever’), and for the next twenty-five years we would depend on his counsel and advice.” After touring and recording with Bob Dylan, The Band became stars in their own right, and are now considered one of the greatest American rock groups.
A decade later, in 1975, Henry and Levon Helm partnered to start RCO (which stood for “Our Company”) Productions. Levon wrote, “I hooked up with my old friend and mentor Henry Glover. I’d met Henry when I was eighteen years old and the Hawks came to New York to record. Now I was almost thirty-five years old and once again turning to Henry to help realize my ambitions. He and I talked and talked and decided we should work together as a team. Between my musical contacts and his expertise in the music business, we felt we could do some worthwhile projects.”
After thirty years of writing and producing so many hit songs for so many artists, Henry finally, in 1975, won his first Grammy Award. It was for the album Muddy Waters at Woodstock, which he produced for the blues legend. The album featured most of The Band, along with Pinetop Perkins and Bob Margolin from Muddy’s band, and Dr. John and blues star Paul Butterfield. The “Woodstock” in the title didn’t refer to the festival, but to the town of Woodstock, New York, which had been home to The Band, and where they had a recording studio.
A little known fact is that Henry acted as an arranger and adviser for The Last Waltz, The Band’s legendary 1976 performance at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, made into a movie by director Martin Scorcese, that “ranks as probably the finest record of a rock concert ever put on film.” (Hartford Courant)
Henry and Levon assembled a group of musicians they called the RCO Allstars that included Booker T. Jones, Dr. John, Duck Dunn, Fred Carter, Paul Butterfield, Steve Cropper, and what would become known as the Blues Brothers’ horn section. In 1977 the album Levon Helm and the RCO Allstars was released, featuring Henry’s songs “Blues So Bad” and “Rain Down Tears.” Henry was listed as “Band Master” of the album, which also featured Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson from The Band.
After the mid 1970s, Henry became much less active in the music business. He could live comfortably on the royalties from his past work. One report claimed that Henry owned 50% of the rights to music he made at King Records, and another source said that he had 629 publishing rights listed with BMI. Henry died on April 7, 1991 in St. Albans (Queens), New York. He was sixty-nine years old.
Dr. John said, “Henry Glover wrote so many killer tunes it makes your mind bend.” (King of Queen City: The Story of King Records) Here’s a partial list of artists who recorded songs Henry wrote (there are many more):
Ace Cannon, Al Kooper, Aretha Franklin, Arthur Prysock, Asleep at the Wheel, The Band, Bill Black’s Combo, Bill Medley, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, Billy Preston, Billy Vera and the Beaters, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Bob Dylan, Bobby Darin, Brenda Lee, Brian Setzer, Brian Wilson, The Browns, Bryan Adams, BR549, Bull Moose Jackson, Carl Perkins, Charlie McCoy, Chet Atkins, Chuck Brown, Cornelius Bumpus, Cory Henry, The Crickets, David “Fathead” Newman, The Delmore Brothers, The Derek Trucks Band, Dinah Washington, Doc Watson, Doug Sahm, Edgar Winter, Ella Fitzgerald, Esther Phillips, Etta James, Eva Cassidy, The Everly Brothers, Freddie King, Gene Vincent, Hank Ballard, Hans Theessink, Herbie Mann, Hot Tuna, Houston Person, Jackie DeShannon, James Brown, Janis Joplin, Jean Shepard, Jeff Beck, Jeff Buckley, The Jeff Healy Band, Jerry Reed, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy McGriff, Joe Cocker, Joe South, Joe Williams, Joey Dee and the Starliters, John Lodge (Moody Blues), Johnny Burnette, Johnny Taylor, Johnny Winter, Jools Holland, The Judds, Kay Starr, Kitty Wells, Latimore, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Levon Helm, Little Willie John, Lonnie Johnson, Lonnie Mack, Loretta Lynn, The Louvin Brothers, Lucky Millinder, Lula Reed, Margaret Whiting, Maria Muldaur, Marshall Chapman, Merle Haggard, Merle Travis, Monty Alexander, Mitch Woods, Moon Mullican, Nick Lowe, Norah Jones, The Notting Hillbillies (Mark Knopfler), The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Percy Sledge, Piano Red, The Platters, The Ramones, Ramsey Lewis, Ray Charles, Ray Price, Red Sovine, Richie Havens, The Righteous Brothers, The Rivieras, Ronnie Hawkins, Sam and Dave, Sha Na Na, Shirley Horn, Simply Red, Sleepy LaBeef, Solomon Burke, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes, Spencer Davis Group (Steve Winwood), Stevie Wonder, The Swallows, Sweet, The Sweet Inspirations, T. Graham Brown, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Tiny Bradshaw, The Ventures, Vince Gill, Wanda Jackson, Wynonie Harris, Yo La Tengo, and many others.