Benjamin Franklin Peay (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988), known professionally as Brook Benton, was an American singer and songwriter whose music transcended rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music genres in the 1950s and 1960s, with hits such as "It's Just a Matter of Time" and "Endlessly". His last hit was the 1970 ballad "Rainy Night in Georgia". Benton scored more than 50 Billboard chart hits as a singer/songwriter and with hits he wrote for other performers.

Early life and career

Benton began singing gospel music in a Methodist church choir in Lugoff, South Carolina, where his father was choir master. In 1948, Benton went to New York where he joined The Langfordaires and The Jerusalem Stars before joining The Sandmen. Epic Records signed The Sandmen in 1954, immediately sending the group to record at the Columbia studios in New York. Columbia placed The Sandmen on its Okeh Records. Upon a second recording session, Okeh decided to push Benton as a solo artist. Benton recorded his first solo, "The Kentuckian Song", the theme from a movie of the same name. Benton switched to RCA's Vik subsidiary in 1957, where he had a single chart appearance, 1958's "A Million Miles From Nowhere", which peaked at No. 82 on U.S. charts. He wrote two songs that charted for other performers, Clyde McPhatter's "A Lover's Question" and Nat King Cole's "Looking Back". In 1958, Benton signed with Mercury Records, where he recorded hits "It's Just A Matter Of Time", "Endlessly", "Thank You Pretty Baby", "So Many Ways", "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)", "A Rockin' Good Way" (both duets with Dinah Washington), "Kiddio", "The Boll Weevil Song", and "Hotel Happiness". One of Benton's sisters was the original artist to record "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)", in 1958, under the title "You've Got What It Takes", using the stage name Dorothy Pay, as the B-side of her single "Strollin' with My Baby". In August 1959 Benton partnered with Dinah Washington to record the song and their version, released in January 1960, was hugely successful on both the pop and R&B charts, reaching #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot R&B sides chart for 10 weeks, becoming one of the most successful R&B singles of the 1960s.

Success

In 1959, he finally made his breakthrough with hits like "It's Just a Matter of Time" and "Endlessly". "It's Just a Matter of Time" peaked at No. 3 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart, sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. "Endlessly" made it to No. 12. Both of the first two hits were written by Benton with Clyde Otis. They were originally offered to Nat King Cole, but when Otis became an A&R manager and producer at Mercury, he convinced Benton to sign with the label and record them himself, while asking Cole not to record the songs as planned. Benton followed this success with a series of hits, including "So Many Ways" (No. 6), "Hotel Happiness" (No. 3), "Think Twice" (No. 11), "Kiddio" (No. 7), and "The Boll Weevil Song" (No. 2). In 1960, he had two top 10 hit duets with Dinah Washington: "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)" (No. 5) and "A Rockin' Good Way (to Mess Around and Fall in Love)" (No. 7). In the mid 1960s, Benton recorded for RCA Records and Reprise Records with minimal commercial success. Then, in 1968, he signed with Cotillion Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, where, the following year, he enjoyed his last major hit with "Rainy Night in Georgia", written by Tony Joe White and produced and arranged by Arif Mardin, a million-seller which topped the Billboard R&B chart. Cornell Dupree played guitar on the song. Benton recorded a total of five albums with Mardin, including a gospel album, during his stay at Cotillion. Benton eventually charted a total of 49 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, with other songs charting on Billboard's rhythm and blues, easy listening, and Christmas music charts. The last album made by Benton was Fools Rush In, which was released posthumously in 2005. He also had records released on various other labels, including All-Platinum, Brut, Olde Worlde, Stax and Groove Records.

Death

Weakened from spinal meningitis, Benton died of pneumonia in Queens, New York City, at the age of 56 on April 9, 1988. He was survived by his wife, Mary Benton, and six children: Brook Jr., Vanessa, Roy, Is'real, Gerald, and Benjamin.

Discography

Albums

Singles