Belford Hendricks
Belford Cabell "Sinky" Hendricks (May 11, 1909– September 24, 1977) was an American composer, pianist, arranger, conductor and record producer. He used a variety of names, including Belford Hendricks, Belford Cabell Hendricks, Belford Clifford Hendricks, Sinky Hendricks and Bill Henry. This was primarily to avoid competition between his own compositions at the height of his prolific career, but the result today is uncertainty about what the C in his official name really stood for - if indeed it stood for anything at all.
Hendricks is primarily remembered as the co-composer of numerous soft-R & B songs of the 1950s, many in collaboration with Clyde Otis and Brook Benton, and as an accomplished arranger, whose versatility allowed him to write in various styles, from big band swing for Count Basie, through bluesy ballads for Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan, R & B-influenced pop for Benton and country and western numbers for Nat King Cole and Al Martino, to early soul for Aretha Franklin.
Read more about Belford Hendricks: Early Life and Education, Marriage and Army Service, The New York Years, Dinah and Brook, Still At Mercury, With Sarah Vaughan, Cole Calls From Capitol, With Other Artists