Jack Henderson Clement (April 5, 1931 – August 8, 2013) was an American singer, songwriter, and record and film producer.
In 1957, Clement wrote the song “Ballad of a Teenage Queen”, which became a crossover hit for Johnny Cash. Other Cash hits written by Clement included “Guess Things Happen That Way”, which was number 1 on the country chart and number 11 on the pop chart in 1958, and the humorous “The One on the Right Is on the Left”, which was a number 2 country and number 46 pop hit in 1966. He produced Cash’s number 1 hit “Ring of Fire” in 1963. Clement performed “Guess Things Happen That Way” on the “Johnny Cash Memorial Tribute” show on CMT (Country Music Television) in November 2003.
In 1958 Clement released the single “Ten Years”, which was covered by Johnny Western (1959), Rex Allen (1962) and Roger Mews.
In 1959, Clement accepted an offer to work as a producer at RCA in Nashville, then the most important label in the industry. In 1961, he moved to Beaumont, Texas, joining the producer and publisher Bill Hall in opening Gulf Coast Recording Studio and the Hall-Clement publishing company.[1] He returned to Nashville permanently in 1965, becoming a significant figure in the country music business, establishing a publishing business, and founding a recording studio, making records for stars such as Charley Pride and Ray Stevens. In 1971, he co-founded the J-M-I Record Company.
Clement wrote a number of highly successful songs that have been recorded by singing stars such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins, Bobby Bare, Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cliff Richard (“It’ll Be Me”), Charley Pride, Tom Jones, Dickey Lee and Hank Snow. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973. He also produced albums by Townes Van Zandt and Waylon Jennings.
Clement was involved in a few film projects as a singer or songwriter of soundtracks. He produced the 1975 horror film Dear Dead Delilah, the last film performance by the actress Agnes Moorehead.