His prominence was as a prolific and skilled songwriter: he wrote or co-wrote many hit songs for other musicians, including "Down Home Blues", "One Bad Apple", "Old Time Rock and Roll" and "The Only Way Is Up".
[2][3] Jackson then traveled to Memphis to promote his songs, but was rejected by Stax before helping to form vocal group The Ovations with Louis Williams at Goldwax Records.
[7] At the suggestion of record producer Billy Sherrill, Jackson moved to Rick Hall's FAME Studios at Muscle Shoals in the late 1960s, Alabama, where he wrote for leading singers including Clarence Carter – whose "Too Weak To Fight" reached no.13 on the pop chart and no.3 on the R&B chart in 1968 – Wilson Pickett, and Candi Staton.
Some of Jackson's songs for Staton, including her first hit in 1969, "I'd Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart (Than A Young Man's Fool)", are "widely regarded as examples of some of the finest southern soul ever recorded by a female artist, with lyrics that were full of meaning and innuendo, a hallmark of Jackson's best work.
[6] The Osmonds recorded the song, and it became the group's first hit, rising to the top of the Hot 100 in February 1971; it also reached no.6 on the R&B chart.
[8][10] In 1983, Jackson formed his own publishing company, Happy Hooker Music, before joining Malaco Records as a staff songwriter.