Billy Swan

 ( 1942 Births ) 

Swan moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to work with Black, but that was cut short with Black's illness and later death in 1965. It was rumored that Swan worked as a security guard at Graceland. While he was friends with one of the security guards he never worked at Graceland. He then moved to Nashville which enabled him to write hit country music songs for numerous artists including Conway Twitty, Waylon Jennings, and Mel Tillis. In 1969, Swan first took on the role of record producer producing Tony Joe White's Top Ten hit "Polk Salad Annie". Swan also played bass guitar for Kris Kristofferson and then signed a solo recording deal with Monument Records.

Swan moved to Nashville in 1973 and cut his first album, I Can Help in early 1974, which included the track "Lover Please". The album budget was only $19,000 and a music business professional who was hired by the president of Monument Records, Fred Foster, declared pre-release that there were no hits on the record. However, the single "I Can Help" proved this wrong; it was recorded at Young 'Un Sound in Murfreesboro, Tennessee southeast of Nashville. It was a rockabilly number which topped the Billboard Hot 100 as well as the US and Canadian country record chart in 1974, also becoming a hit in many other countries.

Swan wrote the song using an RMI organ which Kristofferson and singer Rita Coolidge had bought for him as a wedding gift. However, the RMI organ wasn't used on the final recording, contrary to popular belief, it was actually a portable Farfisa from Bobby Emmons, a Memphis session musician. Swan recalls, "Chip set up a vocal mic, I stood in front of the organ, and what you hear was captured on the second take." The lyrics were written in under twenty minutes. It was recorded in two takes (without ), and co-produced/engineered by the owner of the recording studio, Chip Young. The label pushed for "The Ways of a Woman in Love" to be the single, but Young insisted the hit was "I Can Help". However, other albums with Monument, A&M, and Epic Records did not have nearly the success of "I Can Help".

In 1979, Swan traveled to Havana to participate in the historic Havana Jam festival from March 2–4 alongside Stephen Stills, the CBS Jazz All-Stars, the Trio of Doom, Fania All-Stars, Weather Report, Bonnie Bramlett, Mike Finnigan, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, and Billy Joel plus an array of Cuban artists including Irakere, Pacho Alonso, Tata Güines, and Orquesta Aragón. Swan's performance is captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos's documentary Havana Jam '79.