Born Otha Ellas Bates on December 30, 1928, in McComb, Mississippi, to a 15 or 16 year-old mother, Mr. Diddley was raised by a cousin, Gussie McDaniel. While still a young child, he and his family moved to Chicago, and he officially adopted the surname McDaniel.

In Chicago, Mr. Diddley discovered other delta transplants including Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, whom he grew to idolize. His stepsister Lucille gave him a guitar for Christmas in 1940, when he was almost 12 years-old.

As a young man in the early 1950s, he assumed the stage name Bo Diddley, and he proceeded to record more than two dozen albums for the legendary Chess label family. His signature rhythm - often described as "shave and a haircut, two bits" - innovatively bridged deep blues and rhythm and blues, laying the quintessential groundwork for bourgeoning rock 'n' roll. The new sound's eventual icons including the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Elvis Presley emulated, borrowed from and openly worshipped Diddley's music.

When the Beatles first fielded questions from the media on American soil in 1964, John Lennon proclaimed he was most excited about seeing Bo Diddley in the flesh.

His masterful songs including "Hey, Bo Diddley," "I'm a Man," "Love is Strange," "Bo Diddley (My Story)" and "Before You Accuse Me" traversed raw love, pain and life with singular wit and candor.

In addition to his trendsetting as a songwriter and percussional guitar stylist, Mr. Diddley's incomparable contributions include innovative, homemade amplifiers, experimentation with guitar tone and influential staccato vocal delivery. His enthralling live performances are also legendary.

On June 6, Congress passed a resolution honoring the legendary rock 'n' roll star, "Saluting the life and music of the late Otha Ellas 'Bo Diddley' Bates, guitar virtuoso and rock and roll pioneer, whose music continues to influence generations of musicians."

A longtime BMI songwriter, Bo Diddley has been the recipient of two BMI R&B Awards, a Pop Award and two Million-Air citations. He was named a BMI Icon in May 2002.

Shown are (l to r): BMI's Malik Levy and Charlie Feldman, son Cheaa Mayfield, Altheida Mayfield, BMI's Phil Graham and son Kirk Mayfield, with BMI's Catherine Brewton, David Claassen and Nicole Plantin.

Founded in 1985, Hollywood's RockWalk at the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard is the only sidewalk gallery dedicated to honoring those artists who have made a significant impact and lasting contribution to the growth and evolution of rock and roll, blues and r&b. The handprints and signatures of inductees will reside in bronze alongside other equally accomplished musicians and innovators including Isaac Hayes, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Brian Wilson, Aerosmith, Herbie Hancock, Elvis Presley, Queen, the Black Crowes, Dick Clark, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, KISS, Les Paul, John Lee Hooker and Smokey Robinson.

Altheida Mayfield, flanked by sons Cheaa (left) and Kirk (right), praises her late husband's achievements.

Photos by Marlene Meraz

Founded in 1985, Hollywood's RockWalk on Sunset Boulevard is the only sidewalk gallery dedicated to honoring those artists who have made a significant impact and lasting contribution to the growth and evolution of rock and roll, blues and r&b. Their handprints and signatures will reside alongside other equally accomplished musicians and innovators including Isaac Hayes, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Brian Wilson, Aerosmith, Herbie Hancock, Elvis Presley, Queen, the Black Crowes, Dick Clark, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, KISS, Les Paul, John Lee Hooker, Smokey Robinson and others.

When pressed, Fats softly declares undying admiration for Presley. “I like Elvis myself,” Domino says over the phone from his New Orleans residence. “So does everybody.” With a humble air that warmly wraps around each of his concessions, Fats says he was simply “lucky” such songs as “I’m Walkin’” and “Blueberry Hill” allowed him to support his family.

The man’s authentic modesty is awe-inspiring, especially when Fats could argue he doesn’t get enough credit for creating the rock-&-roll sound. His induction into the 1986 inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class prompted more comparisons to the Memphis boy who would be king: The Hall notes that Fats Domino “sold more records (65 million) than any other Fifties-era rocker except Elvis Presley.”

In fact, any query about who “started” rock & roll could be answered by taking roll call of that class. In addition to Fats and Elvis, 1986 alumni include Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and the Everly Brothers.

The man the musicians themselves look to as the architect of rock sounds is, perhaps, most telling. “Elvis called Fats the ‘King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.’ Bob Marley said reggae started with Fats Domino,” says r&b scholar Rick Coleman, author of the 2006 biography “Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

Evidence of his importance can be found on Vanguard Records’ new double-CD set, Goin’ Home: a Tribute to Fats Domino, which benefits Tipitina’s Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to musical rebirth in the Crescent City.

On the tribute album, Paul McCartney sings “I Want to Walk You Home” and his Beatles mate John Lennon sings “Ain’t That a Shame.” The Fab Four’s 1968 “Lady Madonna” is homage to Domino. That same year, Fats cut his own version, marking his last appearance in the Billboard Top 100 pop singles.

Other iconic contributors to Goin’ Home include Elton John performing “Blueberry Hill,” B.B. King’s “Goin’ Home,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “I’m Walkin’,” Robert Plant’s “It Keeps Raining” and Willie Nelson’s “I Hear You Knockin’.”

The emotional peak comes with Neil Young’s “Walking to New Orleans,” which he sang at a Katrina fund-raising concert. Fats’s version, released June 1, 1960, was his last Top 10 pop hit. A potent string of wonder and musical history preceded that nostalgic song.

On Dec. 10, 1949, Fats Domino cut eight tracks at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studios. Among them: “The Fat Man,” often called “the first rock & roll song.”

Domino’s songbook also includes “All By Myself,” “Be My Guest,” “Bo Weevil,” “Don’t Blame It On Me,” “Every Night About This Time,” “Let the Four Winds Blow,” “Going to the River,” “My Girl Josephine,” “I’m in Love Again,” “Please Don’t Leave Me,” “Poor Me,” “So Long,” “Something’s Wrong,” “Three Nights a Week,” “Valley of Tears” and “Whole Lotta Loving.’’ In Fats’s fashion, the man is quick to share credit with co-writer and producer Dave Bartholomew.

While the music is universally present, Fats had settled in to a peaceful life with family and dear friends, flying contentedly below the world’s contemporary radar — until Katrina nearly killed him. The musician and his family chose to ride out the storm in their home in the Lower 9th Ward, the working-class neighborhood where he grew up. As helicopters plucked victims off roofs, there were media reports Fats was missing. That fear ended with the publication of a New Orleans Times-Picayune photo of Domino being helped off a boat after being rescued from his house.

Like almost everyone in the Lower 9th, he lost everything. But Fats says, “I ain’t missed nothing, to tell you the truth, and I was able to replace what I lost.” Today, he and his family live in a West Bank suburb, while their home is being rebuilt.

Thanks in large part to Tipitina’s Foundation, Fats Domino has become the quintessential face of New Orleans’ rebirth. The foundation is an offshoot of the New Orleans music venue. “Before the storm, our programs were designed to uplift the music culture of New Orleans,” says Bill Taylor, executive director. ”Since Katrina, it’s about saving that same culture.”

In May of 2007, Fats tore through an exhilarating 32-minute set at Tipitina’s. Proceeds benefited the foundation’s drive to provide musical instruments to New Orleans public schools, and to help musicians recover. Profits from the Goin’ Home tribute will also go to Tipitina’s Foundation. Twenty-five percent of monies earned at that red-letter show went toward the restoration of Fats’ Lower 9th home. In addition to helping Domino rebuild, funds will also fuel the construction of a Lower 9th community center and other programs aimed at lifting the neighborhood.

Haydee Ellis, the longtime family friend who helped orchestrate the concert and album, says her experiences recruiting talent for Goin’ Home demonstrate the appreciation artists have for Fats. “I talked to Randy Newman. . . . I said ‘we would enjoy your participation on this album’.” Newman, who performs “Blue Monday,” emphatically told her, “I’d love to. I’ve been stealing from Fats for years.”

Recorded in two days at the Sound Kitchen in Franklin TN, and co-produced by Pagetta with acclaimed country music engineer Steve Marcantonio, four of the five rock and contemporary folk songs on OTHER PEOPLE'S NEWS possess the added distinction of being about things outside Pagetta himself -- rare in the genre known as "singer-songwriter." It's only on the EP's title track that the Jersey City, NJ native goes inside, giving voice to a narrator struggling with "living in my head/and blue/I've been living in my head/and can use/some other people's news."

From the "take no prisoners" guitar riff that kicks off the first track, the listener is escorted through a musical journey that can only come from some serious soul searching. If Pagetta's 2004 full-length CD JOYWOOD mused about reconciliation, OTHER PEOPLE'S NEWS clearly is about the personal faith, perseverance and rebirth that come after it.

OTHER PEOPLE'S NEWS is the follow up to the acclaimed pop and roots-rock JOYWOOD, which was heard on NPR, MTV and close to 200 college stations nationwide. It was called “….a tough but pretty new album… complete with sidewalk grit" and "pop sparkle” (Tennessean), "...a sweet roots-rock collection packed with mandolins, chiming pop melodies and easy rhythms" (Nashville Scene) and "a combination of wit and muscle that's pretty hard to resist. (Rapid River Arts)."

Born and raised in Jersey City, NJ, the first-generation Italian-American Pagetta got his musical start in the early 1990s with the melodic hardcore outfit Horror Time. After two years as the band's frontman and co-writer, Pagetta left to reinvent himself as a contemporary singer-songwriter and troubadour in the songwriter clubs of Greenwich Village in the mid-90's. He picked up early acclaim from the CMJ New Music Report Weekly "( ( ("more to do with hallowed troubadours like Leonard Cohen, Mark Eitzel and Skip Spence…") and the Aquarian Weekly ("Pagetta rhymes internally like a young Dylan"). Fronting the Joe Pagetta Band in the mid 90’s, he performed frequently at clubs like the Bitter End in New York and the Saint in New Jersey and recorded two EPS, one prompting the Aquarian Weekly to call the band "a great acoustic pop band at work."

Pagetta moved to Nashville by the end of the decade and in 1999 released an EP of odds ‘n’ ends from his Northeast days called RECOLLECTIONS OF MAYBEVILLE. The EP was licensed in its entirety by the Oxygen Network and hailed by the Louisville Eccentric Observer as being "filled with wonderful observations...with a right-sized rock format that would please on any John Mellencamp fan." 2001 saw the release of the mostly-acoustic full-length SMALL WORLDS. The Rage in Nashville said it called to mind "easy-going Northeastern folk like Ellis Paul with a little sleazy 1970's N.Y. rock a la Lou Reed thrown in."

Pagetta continued to build his songwriting and performing skills in the early 2000s and soon became part of the burgeoning Americana and singer-songwriter rock scene developing in East Nashville. Working with producer George Marinelli, Jr. (sideman to Bonnie Raitt and original member of Bruce Hornsby and the Range), Pagetta released the pop and roots-rock Joywood in 2004, named for the East Nashville neighborhood where he resided. The album featured a guest spot by "Bette Davis Eyes"-icon Kim Carnes. Good reviews appeared in the Tennessean, Time Out New York, The Nashville Scene, Americana UK, Now on Tour, The East Coast Rocker. Pagetta hit the road in 2004-2005 and performed in New York, Boston, New Jersey, St. Louis and Philadelphia while securing opening slots for up-and-coming bands Antigone Rising and Blue October.

A former journalist for his hometown Jersey Journal, Pagetta holds a bachelor’s degree in English and continues to write prose both professionally and leisurely, while currently handling media relations for non-profit cultural organizations in Nashville. He lives just outside of Nashville with his wife Kathy and two cats.

Nashville A Teamer Jerry Kennedy was one of the night's inductees. Music runs wild through the Kennedy bloodline: All of Jerry's three sons are hit songwriters, while Shelby Kennedy is also a Writer/Publisher Relations representative in the Nashville office. Pictured are (l to r): Gordon Kennedy, Jerry Kennedy, Bryan Kennedy and BMI's Shelby Kennedy.

The vast majority of 2007's inductees are BMI affiliates, veterans and virtual architects of the American popular music canon. Nashville's A Team lent their gifts to studio recordings by Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Brenda Lee, Marty Robbins and countless others. The Blue Moon Boys and the Tennessee Two helped shape the sounds of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, respectively. The Wrecking Crew's musicianship finessed legendary singles for The Ronettes, The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, The Carpenters and more. Detroit's Funk Brothers were a tour de force in Motown, playing on Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It through the Grapevine," singles by Smokey Robison & The Miracles and a smorgasbord of others. The Memphis Boys picked, strummed and drummed through major hits for icons including Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson.

Pictured at the event are (l to r): host Creed Batton, the Musicians Hall of Fame's Joe Chambers, guitar legend Scotty Moore and BMI's Jody Williams.

Joe Chambers, gatekeeper of the Musicians Hall of Fame, took great care in organizing the event, which brought due recognition to behind the scenes virtuosos. Peter Frampton, Vince Gill, George Jones, Brenda Lee, Mandy Barnett, The Jordanaires, Dobie Gray, The Supremes' Mary Wilson, Amy Grant, Keith Anderson, Ray Scott, Garth Brooks, John Carter Cash and Rodney Crowell presented, performed and reiterated glowing praise. Actor/musician Creed Bratton, beloved character of the same name on The Office, proved an able host; before gaining attention for his television and film work, Batton played guitar in popular 60s group The Grass Roots.

Photos by Beth Gwinn

Best-known for his long and enormously successful collaboration with singer Brook Benton, Clyde Otis was among the most prolific songwriters and producers of the post-war era, making music business history as the first African American a&r executive for a major label.

Born in Prentice, Mississippi, Otis's early exposure to music was limited — his family didn't even own a radio — and he only began composing songs after meeting "Route 66" writer Bobby Troup during a stint in the Marines. Following his discharge, Otis settled in New York City, spending the next eight years enduring a series of day jobs while honing his songwriting at night. He was driving a cab when, in 1954, he overheard one of his fares discussing a party being thrown by music publisher Sidney Kornhauser; Otis convinced the woman to give Kornhauser his song "That's All There Is to That," which became a Top 20 pop hit for Nat "King" Cole in mid-1956.

Upon joining Mercury's a&r staff in 1958, Otis began writing and producing material for Brook Benton; beginning with the number three smash "It's Just a Matter of Time," they teamed for a series of 17 consecutive hits, including "Endlessly," "So Many Ways," "Kiddio," and the novelty favorite "The Boll Weevil Song." Otis also produced a number of duets between Benton and Dinah Washington, among them "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" and "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)"; he worked on Washington's solo efforts, as well, most notably the classic "What a Difference a Day Makes." Otis also helmed hits for Sarah Vaughn ("Broken-Hearted Melody"), Timi Yuro (the remarkable "Hurt") and the Diamonds ("The Stroll"), and in 1962 he alone produced an astounding 33 of Mercury's 51 chart hits.

Upon leaving the label, he briefly tenured at Liberty Records before founding his own publishing firm, the Clyde Otis Music Group, and moving into independent production. Upon relocating to Nashville, Otis produced sessions for country stars Charlie Rich and Sonny James; Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis, and Patti Page all recorded his songs as well.

Over four decades ago, Otis went to visit good friend Sarah Vaughn, who lived in Englewood, NJ and knew that was the place he wanted to raise his family and continue growing the Clyde Otis Music Group. He was the first African-American to "build" a home in the prestigious East Hill section of Englewood, located across the street from his buddy, Dizzy Gillespie.

Otis is survived by his wife, Lourdes, three children; Clyde III, AnaIza and Isidro, five grandchildren and a host of nieces and nephews.

A private service will be held on January 14 in Englewood New Jersey. The family is planning a large musical memorial service to take place in February. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the BMI Foundation. For more information call (212) 586-2000.

BMI songwriters dominate the selections, representing 58% of the individuals and groups. The variety and superiority of the material attests not only to the wide-ranging talents of BMI songwriters but also the consistency of BMI’s involvement with all eralms of music throughout the course of its history. The diversity of styles and genres included is remarkable, ranging from folk (Woody Guthrie) to rap (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five), jazz (Miles Davis) to punk (Sex Pistols), blues (Howlin’ Wolf) to country (Hank Williams), rhythm & blues (Sam Cooke) to soul (Aretha Franklin), disco (Chic) to folk-rock (Fairport Convention), the over-the-top (Velvet Underground & Nico) to the indefinable (Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band).

As with any list, arguments are invited and disagreements encouraged. The following are BMI’s representatives in Mojo’s decisions, including their number in the final grouping.

For the complete list, consult mojo4music.com or rocklistmusic.co.uk/mojo.html.

BMI Songwriters on the MOJO List:

Animals: “The House of the Rising Sun” [#86]
Anthology of American Folk Music [#8]
Beach Boys: Pet Sounds [#21]
The Beatles: “I Want To Hold Your Hand” [#2]
                       Revolver [#40]
                      Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band [#16]
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica [#51]
Chuck Berry: “Johnny B. Goode” [#12]
Big Youth: Screaming Target [#76]
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And the Spiders From Mars [#31]
                       Low [#64]
James Brown: “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” [#15]
Jeff Buckley: Grace [#37]
The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo [#57]
Ray Charles: “What’d I Say” [#9]
Chic: “Good Times” [#54]
John Coltrane: My Favorite Things [#60]
Sam Cooke: “You Send Me” [#47]
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue [#43]
Lonnie Donegan: “Rock Island Line” [#38]
Nick Drake: Five Leaves Left [#78]
Brian Eno: Discreet Music [#68]
Fairport Convention: Liege & Lief [#58]
Aretha Franklin: “I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You” [#18]
Gang Of Four: Entertainment [#77]
Gnarls Barkley: “Crazy” [#100]
Davy Graham with Alexis Korner: 3/4AD [#35]
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: “The Message” [#29]
Woody Guthrie: Dust Bowl Ballads [#13]
Billie Holiday : “Strange Fruit” [#67]
Buddy Holly: “That’ll Be The Day” [#52]
Howlin’ Wolf: The Rocking Chair Album [#23]
Michael Jackson: Thriller [#33]
Carole King: Tapestry [#74]
John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band [#55]
The Libertines: Up The Bracket [#94]
Little Richard: “Tutti Frutti” [# 1]
Love [#66]
MC5: Kick Out The Jams [#69]
New York Dolls [#39]
Nirvana: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” [#27]
Nuggets [#42]
N.W.A.: Straight Outta Compton [#61]
Oasis: Definitely Maybe [#89]
Charlie Parker: “Koko” [#26]
Pixies: Surfer Rosa [#79]
Elvis Presley: “Heartbreak Hotel” {#3]
R.E.M.: Murmur [#75]
Rolling Stones: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” [#19]
                          “Sympathy For The Devil:” [#48]
Ronettes: “Be My Baby” [#45]
Sex Pistols: “God Save the Queen” [#10]
The Shadows: “Apache” [#84]
The Smiths: This Charming Man [#80]
Sonic Youth: EVOL [#85]
The Stone Roses [#99]
The Stooges: Funhouse [#36]
Television: Marquee Moon [#97]
Upsetters: Blackboard Jungle Dub [#59]
The Velvet Underground & Nico [#7]
The Who: “My Generation” [#44]
Hank Williams: “Move It On Over” [#30]
Link Wray: “Rumble” [#41]

The title track of The Who’s 1965 debut American album, The Who Sings My Generation, with such stuttered lyrics as “talkin’ ‘bout my g-generation,” introduced one of the most important and revered bands of the 1960s — and one of the very few to still remain active some four decades later.

It’s not exactly the same band, of course. Keith Moon, The Who’s original drummer and the embodiment of the outrageous rock & roll fantasy lifestyle at its most extreme, succumbed to the fast life in 1978. Original bassist John Entwistle followed suit, though he lasted until 2002. But surviving vocalist Roger Daltrey and guitarist/vocalist/ songwriter Pete Townshend trudged on, performing the classic hits without a new studio album from the band since It’s Hard.

But that album, which yielded the minor pop hits “Athena” and “Eminence Front,” came out in 1982 — over 24 years ago! So the fall 2006 release of Endless Wire was greatly anticipated and ecstatically received. Many critics felt that it was the best work by Townshend (who continued to issue solo albums since It’s Hard) in years, if not decades.

There are key differences, to be sure. On the critical musicianship side, Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr’s son and The Who’s more-than-able touring drummer since 1996 (he actually received his first drum kit from his idol Moon), is present; equally estimable bassist Pino Palladino, who assumed the band’s touring bass role after Entwistle’s passing, is another seamless fill-in.

In the vocal department, Daltrey’s bluster has aged well and is altogether fitting: Always the delivery vehicle for Townshend’s lyrics, Daltrey has been supplied with songs showing the observations and reflections of a complex man now in his sixties. So while the album’s opening track, “Fragments,” may hark back to “Baba O’Riley” (from 1971’s Who’s Next) with its dainty keyboard play, it is not at all the “teenage wasteland” of that song’s stirring verse. Nor is Endless Wire a mere throwback to earlier Who work in other aspects, though there are plenty more links with the past that are just as obvious, both musically and thematically.

Rather, Endless Wire is Pete Townshend at his most pensive and philosophical — and modern. In “Fragments,” the artist who with his band helped define England’s modernist (mod) youth subculture of the mid-1960s, experiments with composer Lawrence Ball in creating music by way of the “Method” — an interactive music composition tool — as envisioned in Townshend’s three interlocking rock-opera projects: Lifehouse, which The Who released in 1972; Psychoderelict, Townshend’s solo album from 1993; and The Boy Who Heard Music, his blog’s novella written over the past two years.

In that novella, “Fragments” is a big hit song by the three-piece band that is the center of the story. By itself, it’s an existential exploration of man’s place in the universe, though it returns in shorter instrumental form in the middle of “Wire & Glass,” a 10-song “mini-opera” tie-in with the novella that makes up the second half of Endless Wire (the album’s title track is itself a song from this part of the program).

“Man in a Purple Dress” is simply Daltrey backed by Townshend’s acoustic guitar, and in its mocking rejection of priestly hypocrisy, is one of three songs Townshend wrote after watching Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. The frenetic rocker “Sound Round” evokes youth at life’s crossroads, “We Got a Hit” is a cynical take on stardom, and “Black Widow’s Eyes,” with its “Pinball Wizard” power-chording, is an ironic love song situated in the horrific Beslan (Russia) school massacre.

Giving it a final context, then, Endless Wire, seems an extension of The Who’s skeptical 1970 hit “The Seeker,” in which Daltrey gives voice to Townshend’s dismissal of Dylan, The Beatles and Timothy Leary, none of whom can provide life’s big answers. Ever the spiritual wanderer, Townshend, who was heavily influenced by the Indian guru Meher Baba, perhaps tenders his own answer in “Mirror Door,” the mirror, incidentally, being a key symbol in Tommy.

Citing such musical luminaries as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash, Daltrey’s voice concludes, “Music makes me, makes me strong.” As always, though, they are the words of Townshend, whose musical strengths have never been more pronounced as the creative genius behind The Who.

“I had a pop/doo-wop kind of vocal group that signed with RCA Victor and our first record was released in 1956,” recalls Crutchfield. “It’s amazing to think I’ve been in this crazy business for 50 years!”

Crutchfield’s group never had a hit. But it did start him on a successful songwriting career — and he remains a BMI writer.

“I sent a demo of ‘Little Sparrow’ to Chet Atkins and he cut it with Eddy Arnold — my first major [cover] release,” says Crutchfield, who had to sing the melody part for Atkins on the phone since it was mixed too low on the demo. He would go on to land over 150 covers by the likes of Elvis Presley, Tanya Tucker, Lee Greenwood and Tammy Wynette. His “My Whole World Is Falling Down” became a pop hit for Brenda Lee in 1963 and was also a major European hit for French singing and film star Sylvie Vartan.

But Crutchfield began producing, too. “I really enjoyed the energy of the studio — and musicians making music,” he says, and sure enough, he produced Dave Loggins’s “Please Come to Boston,” one of the most successful pop records ever cut in Nashville — not to mention country hits including Lee Greenwood’s Grammy-winning “I.O.U.”

Crutchfield would serve as Executive Vice President/General Manager of Capitol Records and President of the Nashville division of MCA Music. But he also established MCA Music Publishing (now Universal Music Publishing) as a major Nashville publishing house, and had a hand in signing and developing such top Music Row writers as Loggins, Don Schlitz, Gary Burr and Mark Nesler.

He continues to run the Crutchfield Music Group of publishing companies (its Glitterfish Music catalog has had hits by George Strait, Tim McGraw and Martina McBride) while writing a series of “The Adventures of Dr. Raccoon” children’s books.

His alma mater, Murray State University in Kentucky, is currently exhibiting his memorabilia to commemorate a new scholarship in his name, but Crutchfield looks ahead. “People complain about changes in the business,” he says, “but time marches on and you have to stay with the program.”