Don Covay, a singer and songwriter whose rhythm-and-blues compositions — among them “Pony Time,” “Chain of Fools” and “Mercy, Mercy” — became hits for a variety of performers and standards of rock ’n’ roll and soul music, died on Jan. 31 in a hospital in Valley Stream, N.Y., not far from his home in Queens. He was 78.

His death was confirmed by his daughter Wendy, who did not specify a cause. Mr. Covay, who suffered a stroke some years ago, was known to be in declining health.

Mr. Covay was among a handful of writers and performers, including Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding, who helped define the soul sound (male division) of the 1960s. His own recordings of songs like “Pony Time” (written with John Berry), “Mercy, Mercy” (a funky R&B tune sometimes known as “Have Mercy”) and “See Saw” (written with Steve Cropper) were modest hits, but other performers did even better with them: “Pony Time,” an up-tempo shuffle, was a No. 1 hit for Chubby Checker in 1961; “Mercy, Mercy” was featured on the Rolling Stones’ 1965 album, “Out of Our Heads”; and the soulful and lusty “Chain of Fools” was a No. 2 pop hit in 1967 — and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart — for Aretha Franklin, who won a Grammy Award for the recording.

Mr. Covay wrote songs with and for Mr. Pickett (“I’m Gonna Cry”) and for Gladys Knight and the Pips (“Letter Full of Tears”). His songs were also covered by singers and bands not necessarily within the sphere of R&B and soul, including Steppenwolf (“Sookie, Sookie”), the Small Faces (“Take This Hurt Off Me”), Connie Francis (“Mr. Twister”) and others.