"The Dark End of the Street" is a 1967 soul song written by Dan Penn and Chips Moman and first performed by James Carr. The song became Carr's most popular, reaching number 10 on Billboard Magazine's Black Singles Chart, and crossing over to number 77 on the Pop chart. See also: 1966 in music, other events of 1967, 1968 in music, 1960s in music and the list of years in music 1967 was an important year for psychedelic music, with releases from The Doors (The Doors, Strange Days), Jefferson Airplane (Surrealistic Pillow), the Beatles Sgt. ... For other uses, see Soul music (disambiguation). ... Wallace Daniel Pennington (16 November 1941 -) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including Dark End of the Street & Do Right Woman (with Chips Moman) and Out of Left Field & Cry Like A Baby (with Spooner Oldham). ... Lincoln Wayne Chips Moman is an American record producer, guitarist and songwriter, born 1936 in La Grange, Georgia. ... James Carr (June 13, 1942 - January 7, 2001), was a United States soul music singer. ... Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. ... Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, formerly known as Top Soul Singles, Top Black Singles, and Top R&B Singles (before the hip-hop term was added in the late 1990s), is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States. ... The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. ...

Written by Penn, a professional songwriter and producer, and Moman, a session guitarist at Phil Spector's Gold Star Studio, the song is the lament from an adulterer to his illicit lover, told from the adulterer's point of view. They continue their sin, "hiding in shadows where [they] don't belong" because their "love keeps coming on strong." At the climax of the song, the narrator fears "they're gonna find us some day." Harvey Phillip Spector (born December 26, 1939) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. ...

In the summer of 1966, while a DJ convention was being held in Memphis, Tennessee, the song was written in about thirty minutes. Penn and Moman were cheating while playing cards with Florida DJ Don Schroeder. They wrote the song while on a break. “We were always wanting to come up with the best cheatin’ song. Ever,” Penn said. The duo went to the hotel room of Quinton Claunch, founder of Hi Records, to write. Claunch told them, "boys, you can use my room on one condition, which is that you give me that song for James Carr. They said I had a deal, and they kept their word.” For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... Hi Records was a Memphis soul label started by Ray Harris in 1957. ...

The song has been covered by many artists, including Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Percy Sledge, Linda Thompson, Frank Black and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Declan Patrick MacManus (born August 25, 1954, in London), better known by his stage name, Elvis Costello, is an English musician, singer, and songwriter of Irish ancestry. ... Ryland Ry Peter Cooder (born 15 March 1947, in Los Angeles, California) is an American guitarist, singer and composer, known for his slide guitar work, his interest in the American roots music and, more recently, for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries. ... Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American soul, R&B, and gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist born in Memphis, Tennessee, but raised in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She has been called for many years The Queen Of Soul, but many also call her Lady Soul, as well as... Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American Grammy-winning and Academy Award-nominated country singer, songwriter, composer, author, actress and philanthropist. ... Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a multi-Grammy-winning, multi-platinum selling and Emmy Award-winning American singer most closely associated with the folk rock and country rock genres that prevailed throughout the 1970s. ... Percy Sledge Percy Sledge (born November 25, 1941 in Leighton, Alabama) is a US-American R&B and soul performer. ... Linda Thompson is a British singer. ... Frank Black (born April 6, 1965 as Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. ... Cover of The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969) The Flying Burrito Brothers were an early country rock band, best known for their massively influential debut album, 1969s The Gilded Palace of Sin. ...

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton recorded the song in 1968 as a male/female duet on their album, Just the Two of Us. Just the Two of Us was a 1968 duet album by Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. ...

References

• Gordon, Robert (2001). It Came from Memphis. Atria. ISBN 9780743410458
• Guralnick, Peter (2002). Sweet Soul Music. MOJO Books. ISBN 9781841952406
• Hoskyns, Barney (1998). Say it One Time for the Broken Hearted. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. ISBN 9780747541370