Clinton Conger Ballard Jr. (May 24, 1931 – December 23, 2008) was an American

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

, singer, and pianist. He wrote two ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number one

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

. The first was " Game of Love" by Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders in 1965. The second was the 1975 hit, "

You're No Good "You're No Good" is a song written by Clint Ballard Jr., first performed by Dee Dee Warwick for Jubilee Records in 1963 with production by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It has since been covered by many artists, including charting versions by ...

" by

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...

(first sung by

Dee Dee Warwick Delia Juanita Warrick (September 25, 1942 – October 18, 2008), known professionally as Dee Dee Warwick, was an American soul singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, she was the sister of singer Dionne Warwick, the niece of Cissy Houston, and a f ...

, covered by The Swinging Blue Jeans and later recorded by

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...

). He wrote two UK number one singles, recorded by Jimmy Jones (" Good Timin", 1960) and

The Hollies The Hollies are a British pop rock band, formed in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Allan Clarke (singer), Allan Clarke and Graham ...

(" I'm Alive", 1965). Ballard also pursued a solo singing career. With minor success he recorded under his own name, as well as under the pseudonym Buddy Clinton.

Biography

When Ballard was three years old, he played the piano for KTSM, an El Paso radio station. When he was 11, he attended a musical program for gifted students at the University of North Texas. After serving in the US Army, he moved to New York and became a songwriter and a composer of musicals, including '' Come Back Little Sheba''. His song, "Hey, Little Baby", was recorded by band leader Mitch Miller and became the theme of the

1958 World's Fair Expo 58, also known as the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (french: Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles de 1958, nl, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling van 1958), was a world's fair held on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Brussels, Bel ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Earlier in his career in 1957, Ballard 'discovered' the

Kalin Twins The Kalin Twins (born February 16, 1934), also known as Hal and Herbie, were an American pop singing, songwriting and recording duo, formed in 1958 by twin brothers Harold Kalin and Herbert Kalin. The duo is best remembered for their number one ...

and became their

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

. Ballard wrote the Kalins' Decca debut single, "Jumpin' Jack". The follow-up, " When" made the US Top Ten and number one on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. After leaving the Kalins, in 1958, he wrote "Ev'ry Hour, Ev'ry Day of My Life", a hit for

Malcolm Vaughan Malcolm Vaughan (22 March 1929 – 9 February 2010) was a Welsh traditional pop music singer and actor. Known for his distinctive tenor voice, he had a number of chart hits in the United Kingdom during the 1950s. Biography Born Malcolm James Th ...

, and Frankie Avalon's Top Ten hit " Ginger Bread". Ballard's own recording career was less successful. In addition to recording several singles under his own name without much success, in 1960 he adopted the alias Buddy Clinton to cut a two-sided single featuring the songs "Take Me to Your Ladder (I'll See Your Leader Later)" and "Joanie's Forever", both co-written by then-unknown composer

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

with his writing partner Bob Hilliard. Ballard wrote one of his most successful songs in 1963, "

", which was first recorded by

. A competing version recorded by Betty Everett appeared weeks later and was a bigger hit, reaching the Top Ten of the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

. A year later, the British group The Swinging Blue Jeans also recorded "You're No Good".

's version hit number one on the ''Billboard'' chart in 1975. Ballard's songs were often recorded by artists of the

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on b ...

. The Swinging Blue Jeans recorded "It Isn't There". In 1966, the Zombies recorded his "Gotta Get a Hold of Myself". Ballard wrote " I'm Alive" for

, which was number one in the

in 1965. One of Ballard's best-known songs, " The Game of Love", was recorded by Manchester-based Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders in 1965. The single went hit number one in the US and peaked at number two in the UK. Ballard also wrote the subsequent Mindbenders' chart singles " It's Just a Little Bit Too Late" and "

She Needs Love "She Needs Love" is a song written by Clint Ballard Jr. for Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders. It was the third and final song written by him that the group recorded, following " The Game of Love" and "It's Just a Little Bit Too Late". Upon rele ...

". Ballard later wrote songs for the Ricky Nelson film, ''Love and Kisses''. He also wrote a series of commercial jingles, including a theme for

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and pac ...

. He died in Denton, Texas, in December 2008, two years after suffering a stroke. He is not to be confused with fellow songwriters Russ Ballard,

Glen Ballard Basil Glen Ballard Jr. (born May 1, 1953) is an American songwriter, lyricist, and record producer. He is best known for co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's 1995 album ''Jagged Little Pill'', which won Grammy Awards for Grammy Award fo ...

or Hank Ballard.

Songwriting credits

*"A Cold, Cold Winter" – Walter Jackson *"A Miracle" – Gene McDaniels *"A Very Good Year for Girls" – Johnny Tillotson,

Brian Poole & The Tremeloes The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, England. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with "Do You Love Me". After Poole's departure ...

*"Come Back Little Sheba" – Original cast of ''Little Sheba'' *"Come Out Dancin'" – Ricky Nelson *"Don't You Even Care (What's Gonna Happen to Me) –

*"Fiddle Around" – Jan and Dean *" Game of Love" – Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders, Montrose *" Ginger Bread" – Frankie Avalon *" Good Timin'" – Jimmy Jones *"Gotta Get a Hold of Myself" – Michael Haslam,

, The Zombies *"Hey Lulu" –

Shane Fenton Bernard William Jewry (27 September 1942 – 23 October 2014), known professionally as Shane Fenton and later as Alvin Stardust, was an English rock singer and stage actor. Performing first as Shane Fenton in the 1960s, Jewry had a moderately s ...

*" I'm Alive" –

, Syndicate of Sound,

Gamma Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter re ...

*"In The Rain" –

Billy Eckstine William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously ...

* "In A Long White Room" (lyrics by Marty Charnin) ( Nancy Wilson on 1969 Capitol album ''Nancy'') *"It Isn't There" – The Swinging Blue Jeans, Johnny Burnette, George Maharis *"It's Better Than Nothing At All" – Louis Prima *"It's Just a Little Bit Too Late" – Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders, The Druids *"It Would Still Be Worth It" –

Connie Francis Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1937), known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Called the “First Lady of Rock & Roll” ...

*"Je Revis" – Frank Alamo *"Journey's End" –

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American Singing, singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to hi ...

*"The Ladder of Love" -

The Flamingos The Flamingos are an American doo-wop group formed in Chicago in 1953. The band became popular in mid-to-late 1950s and are known for their 1959 cover version of "I Only Have Eyes for You". They have since been hailed as one of the finest and m ...

Johnny Nash John Lester Nash Jr. (August 19, 1940October 6, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter, best known in the United States for his 1972 hit " I Can See Clearly Now". Primarily a reggae and pop singer, he was one of the first non-Jamaican artists ...

*" Little Bitty Girl" –

Bobby Rydell Robert Louis Ridarelli (April 26, 1942 – April 5, 2022), known by the stage name Bobby Rydell, was an American singer and actor who mainly performed rock and roll and traditional pop music. In the early 1960s he was considered a teen idol. His ...

*"My Precious Angel" – Jimmy Jones *"Now That You've Got Me (You Don't Seem to Want Me)" – The Swinging Blue Jeans *"Oh No!" – The Browns *"One of Us (Will Weep Tonight)" –

Patti Page Clara Ann Fowler (November 8, 1927 – January 1, 2013), known professionally as Patti Page, was an American singer and actress. Primarily known for pop and country music, she was the top-charting female vocalist and best-selling female ar ...

*"She Needs Love" – Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders *"Speak Her Name" –

David and Jonathan David and Jonathan were, according to the Hebrew Bible's Books of Samuel, heroic figures of the Kingdom of Israel, who formed a covenant, taking a mutual oath. Jonathan was the son of Saul, king of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and David w ...

, Walter Jackson *"Stop Crying, Little Girl" – Arthur Prysock *"Sufferer" – Patti Drew *"There's Not a Minute" – Ricky Nelson *"You Ain't Right" –

The Frost The Frost was an American psychedelic rock band from Alpena, Michigan in the late 1960s, led by singer-guitarist Dick Wagner, who went on to play with Ursa Major, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel in the 1970s. The rest of the band consisted ...

" –

, Betty Everett, The Swinging Blue Jeans,

, Wild Orchid,

Michael Bolton Michael Bolotin
, The Jewish Historical Society of New Haven, 1998. (born February 26, 1953), known professio ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballard Jr., Clint 1931 births 2008 deaths Songwriters from Texas Musicians from El Paso, Texas People from Denton, Texas 20th-century American musicians