Jimmy Bowen

Jimmy Bowen (* 30th November 1937 as James Albert Bowen in Santa Rita , New Mexico ) is an American music producer and rockabilly musician.

Career as a musician

I'm Stickin 'with You , 1957

Jimmy Bowen, who grew up in Texas, began his career as a country and rockabilly musician. He played bass guitar in the band Rhythm Orchids led by Buddy Knox . In 1956 they recorded two songs: Party Doll with Knox as the singer and Bowens I'm Stickin 'with You . The newly founded label Roulette Records released two singles that sold millions of times.

Successful as a producer

While his friend Buddy Knox stayed as an interpreter with the Roulette label, Jimmy Bowen tried his hand at producing after a few unsuccessful records. After a short interlude as a disc jockey in Colorado Springs, he moved to Los Angeles in 1960, where he initially worked with Glen Campbell . He later became the producer of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra , whose careers were just bottoming out. It was the time of the British musical invasion. The Beatles dominated the scene, hardly anyone was interested in Hollywood's aging bards. Not even 30 years old, Bowen did the impossible: He brought Sinatra back to the top. The Bert Kaempfert song Strangers In The Night reached number one on the pop charts.

In the following years Bowen worked for various record companies. He was temporarily president of the MGM label. He moved to Nashville in the mid-1970s . Here he initially worked with Tompall Glaser , who had his own studio. In 1984 he switched to the crisis-ridden MCA label. Despite reservations from the country scene, the outsider turned the trend around within a year. He ruthlessly dismissed long-serving employees and unprofitable artists. At the same time, he modernized the outdated studio technology and encouraged the musicians to play more variedly.

Bowen was so successful that in no time he rose to become one of the most powerful men in Music City - albeit also the most hated. In 1988 he became Nashville President of the Capitol Label. This is where the career of Garth Brooks , the future country music superstar, began. Brooks was the only one who could stand up to Bowen thanks to its high record sales.

Bowen developed cancer in the 1990s. He retired to Hawaii , where he wrote his autobiography Rough Mix . It wasn't until 2005 that he returned to the music scene after more than ten years to produce an album with Merle Haggard .

Jimmy Bowen is now considered the most important modernizer of country music. He introduced new recording techniques and brought the studios up to date with the latest technology. Much of the genre's commercial success in the 1980s and 1990s can be traced back to his work. In total, he produced more than 60 number 1 hits. The list of musicians he mentored or sponsored includes names like George Strait , Hank Williams Jr. , Garth Brooks , Steve Earle , Reba McEntire , The Judds and of course Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin .

literature

• Jimmy Bowen: Rough Mix. An unapologetic look at the music business and how it got that way, as told by one of the industry's most powerful players , Simon & Schuster, New York 1997, ISBN 0-684-80764-5 .

Web links

• Discography with audio samples