Clyde Otis

The songwriter and record producer Clyde Otis was noted for his long association with Brook Benton. He wrote both ballads and beat songs, but was at his best in reflective work which drew on his own life, such as "Looking Back" (for Nat "King" Cole), "It's Just a Matter of Time" (Brook Benton) and "This Bitter Earth" (Dinah Washington). Otis was born into a poor family in Prentice, Mississippi in 1925. The family did not possess a radio, so he had little opportunity to hear the hits of the day.