The Court of Honor Award
FLORENCE-Dewey Lindon “Spooner” Oldham Jr., songwriter, producer, and session keyboardist who first gained attention in the 1960’s Muscle Shoals Sound scene, was inducted into the 2022 Court of Honor at the 101st Annual Alabama District Exchange Clubs’ (ADEC) annual convention. The awards banquet honoring Oldham was held on Saturday evening, June 3, 2022, at Lake Guntersville State Park Lodge. Oldham was accompanied by his wife Karen Hampton Oldham.
The twenty-three clubs of the Alabama District Exchange Clubs have been honoring an outstanding Alabamian each year for the past sixty years. According to the ADEC by-laws, a person nominated for the ADEC Court of Honor must be “recognized as an outstanding Alabamian who, by virtue of their efforts in his/her field of endeavor and in their personal life, has brought fame and honor to the State of Alabama.” Oldham joins other inductees in the ADEC Court of Honor, including past inductees Coach Nick Saban (2021), Mayor Walt Maddox (2020), Rick Hall (2006), and Dr. David Bronner (2001).
: Spooner Oldham (sitting, left) and wife Karen Hampton Oldham (sitting, right) are congratulated by Maureen Murphy, ADEC President (standing).
Spooner Oldham was previously inducted into the Musicians’ Hall of Fame in Nashville (2008), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH (2009), the Alabama Music Hall of Fame (2014), and the Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame (2020). Oldham’s keyboard work for FAME (Florence Alabama Musical Enterprises) brought a unique sound to Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You),” Wilson Pickett’s “Funky Broadway,” and Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman.” In addition to playing keyboard with Aretha Franklin at FAME, Oldham recorded with her on her first four albums with Atlantic
Spooner Oldham (left) Maureen Murphy (right),
Records in New York City in the late 1960s. This work produced some of Franklin’s most popular and soulful work: “Respect,” “Think,” “Chain of Fools,” and “Baby I Love You.”
In accepting the 2022 ADEC Court Of Honor Award, Oldham quoted Elvis Presley, who when he was honored by the Jaycees as one of the “Ten Most Outstanding Men of Memphis” in 1971 stated:
“Without a song, the day would never end,
Without a song a man ain’t got a friend,
Without a song the road would never bend,
Without a song.
So I keep singing the song.”
Media Release/Maureen Murphy, President of Alabama District Exchange Clubs
