Dan Penn is one of the major figures in soul music, composing many of the genre's standards while working at Chips Moman's American Studios in Memphis in the late 1960s. Moman was one of Penn's two key collaborators, the other being keyboardist Spooner Oldham, who co-wrote "I'm Your Puppet" with Penn, which James & Bobby Purify had a crossover hit with in 1967. From there, Penn amassed an impressive songbook, co-writing James Carr's "The Dark End of the Street," Aretha Franklin's "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, Otis Redding's "You Left the Water Running," and "Cry Like a Baby" with the Box Tops. After an abortive attempt at a solo career in the early '70s, Penn stayed quiet as a performer until 1994, when he released Do Right Man on Sire. In 2024, he offered a look into his creative process with The Inside Track on Bobby Purify.