Representative Albums: "Guess Things Happen That Way," "Cowboy Jack Clement's Home Movies," "All I Want to Do in Life"
Biography
One of the most opportune, creative, and maverick characters in American music history, singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, and song publisher Jack Clement has an amazingly long and varied music résumé that includes working with all manner of musicians ranging from Louis Armstrong, Doc Watson, and Frank Yankovic to U2 , Johnny Cash, and Townes Van Zandt. Clement was born in Whitehaven, TN, in 1931, the son of a choir director. He began playing music professionally during a 1948-1952 stint in the U.S. Marines, working with the Stonemans, Roy Clark, and Jimmy Dean and playing in a band called the Tennessee Troupers. In 1953, fresh out of the Marines, Clement and mandolin player Buzz Busby formed the bluegrass duo Buzz and Jack, the Bayou Boys. After some time in college, Clement settled in Memphis, where he started Fernwood Records with Slim Wallace, recording artists in Wallace's garage. After hearing some tracks from these garage sessions in 1956, Sam Phillips of Sun Records hired Clement as an engineer and producer (as well as a sometimes recording artist) for the label. A key architect of the famed Sun sound, Clement worked with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and Charlie Rich at Sun Studios over the next three years (turning out some of the most famous and pivotal recordings in rock & roll history) before leaving in 1959 to set up his own Summer Records, which unfortunately folded almost immediately, although the Fernwood imprint he had started with Wallace continued to be active. Now frequently billed as Cowboy Jack, Clement began to be an in-demand producer at the major labels, working most notably with Chet Atkins at RCA. He started a song publishing company, Hall-Clement Music, in 1961 with Bill Hall, and a year later pitched one of the new company's songs to country singer George Jones. The song, called "She Thinks I Still Care," went on to hit the top of the country charts in 1962 and became Jones' signature tune. In 1964 a late-night call from Johnny Cash led to Clement arranging the horns for Cash's "Ring of Fire." In 1968 he began producing a series of albums for songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Jack Clement Studios, a then impressive and modern 16-track facility, opened its doors in Nashville in 1970, and promptly had a hit with Ray Stevens' "Everything Is Beautiful." By now a legend on his own terms, Clement worked with Don Williams and Waylon Jennings, among others, in the 1970s, and with Johnny Cash and John Hartford, again among others, in the 1980s. In 1988 he was approached by U2 to record an album back at the old Sun Studios. Clement, who had never heard of the band, was convinced it was a bad idea until friends persuaded him otherwise, and the result was the U2 album called Rattle and Hum. Clement began the new century as part of a performing trio with Billy Burnette and Shawn Camp and then began concentrating on his own records, releasing Guess Things Happen That Way in 2004 and Connect Set and Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan in 2005. Shout! Factory re-released Shakespeare in 2007 along with Cowboy Jack Clement's Home Movies. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
Raised and educated in Memphis, Jack Clement was performing at an early age. In 1953, he made his first record for the Sheraton label in Boston, Massachusetts but did not immediately pursue a full time career in music, instead choosing to study at Memphis State University from 1953 to 1955. Nicknamed 'Cowboy' Jack Clement, during his student days he played steel guitar with a local band, and in 1956 became part of one of the seminal events in rock and roll history when he went to work as a producer and engineer for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. There, Clement worked with future stars such as Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. But most importantly, he discovered and recorded Jerry Lee Lewis while Sam Phillips was away on a trip to Florida (one of those recordings, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," was selected in 2005 for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress). In 1957, Clement wrote the song "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" that became a crossover hit for Johnny Cash. Another Cash hit written by Clement was "Guess Things Happen That Way", which was # 1 country and # 11 pop in 1958. Clement performed the song on the Johnny Cash Memorial Tribute show on CMT in November 2003.
In 1959, Clement accepted an offer to work as a producer at RCA in Nashville, then the most important label in the industry. Clement went on to become a significant figure in the Nashville music business, establishing a publishing business, and his own recording studio, making records for stars such as Charley Pride and Ray Stevens. In 1971, he co-founded the J-M-I Record Company.
Clement was involved in a few film projects as a singer or songwriter on soundtracks, and produced the 1975 horror filmDear Dead Delilah that marked the last film performance by actress Agnes Moorehead.
In 1987 Clement was approached by U2 to record at legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, TN. He had never heard of U2 but took the session based on the urging of someone else in his office. The result was a portion of the U2 album Rattle and Hum ("When Love Came To Town" with BB King, "Angel of Harlem" about Billie Holiday, and "Love Rescue Me" with backing vocals by Bob Dylan), as well as the Woody Guthrie song "Jesus Christ," which appeared on 1988's "Folkways: A Vision Shared -- A Tribute to Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly. Portions of the 2 sessions also appear in the film Rattle and Hum.
In 2005, a documentary on Clement entitled Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan was created by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, pieced together from Clement's home videos and interviews with peers, including Jerry Lee Lewis and Bono.
