John Davenport, Eddie Cooley

The names of Otis Blackwell and Eddie Cooley are often coupled due to their collaboration in the creation of a song made famous by Peggy Lee, and covered by several other artists: Fever. When they composed Fever, Otis Blackwell was using the pen name John Davenport, perhaps to get around an exclusive contract he was under with Jay-Dee records. As to Fever, Blackwell’s own account of the collaboration was that Cooley brought him a rough form of the song, and that he, Blackwell, polished it up. Both men are credited with many other contributions aside from this single song. Blackwell in particular was central to the development of the musical vocabulary of rock ‘n roll. He was writing songs as early as the late 1940s while making a living as a pants presser in a tailor shop. Cooley was known as a doo wop and rhythm and blue musician.