Our next “forgotten” artist is a product of my own home state of Florida. Johnny Tillotson was born in Jacksonville, spent his childhood in Palatka, and attended the University of Florida in Gainesville.
While at UF, a local DJ entered the aspiring singer-songwriter into a contest. As a finalist, he captured the attention of a Nashville publisher and was signed to a record deal. He left Florida for New York, but not before graduating with a degree in journalism (good for him!).
Today’s “forgotten” artist is another Hall of Fame inductee. Gene Pitney entered the Rock Hall in 2002, which feels like a bit of a reach given that he had fewer hits and less influence than some of the others acts I’ve featured.
Pitney’s best-known single is ‘(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance,’ a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David that was not included in the movie of the same name (despite Paramount paying for the recording session).
The names of many of these “forgotten” artists are at least somewhat familiar to me. But I had never once heard of Brook Benton.
Benton was a singer-songwriter who recorded many hit R&B, soul, and rock singles and penned many more for other artists. While he was active from 1958 through 1978, most of his success came during the first half of the 60s.
When I came across The Dave Clark Five on the “forgotten artists” list, I was sure I’d featured them on the blog already. And I assumed I knew at least some of their music.
I think maybe I was confusing this act with jazz musician Dave Brubeck, who has a famous song called ‘Take Five,’ because I realized pretty quickly that Dave Clark and company are completely new to me.
I enjoyed last week’s look at some of history’s most forgotten artists — defined as those who enjoyed a great deal of success once upon a time but have almost no footprint today.
I covered five who had never appeared on the blog before, but the list (culled by writer Chris Dalla Riva for his Substack Can’t Get Much Higher) featured ten more 60s artists I’ve yet to feature. I’m going to highlight those acts over the next two weeks.
Meet Me In Montauk 