Jimmy Jones (singer-songwriter)
Jimmy Jones (born June 2, 1937 in Birmingham , Alabama , † August 2, 2012 in Aberdeen , Moore County , North Carolina ) was an American rock 'n' roll and pop singer . His best-known songs include the number one hit Good Timin ' and Handy Man , which became a hit with himself, Del Shannon and later James Taylor .
Life
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From Alabama to the Apollo
Jones moved from Alabama to New York as a teenager , where he joined the doo-wop group "The Berliners" in 1954 . The band soon renamed themselves “Sparks of Rhythm”. In 1955 Jones wrote the song Handy Man , which the Sparks of Rhythm recorded on record in 1956 after Jones had already left the band.
Jones and other singers founded the “Savoys”, which were renamed “The Pretenders” after moving to another record company. These appeared several times in 1956 with various other artists such as Clyde McPhatter , Sonny Knight , the Cleftones and the Teenagers in New York's Apollo Theater and released some singles that received good reviews. In 1957 the Pretenders became The Jones Boys for about a year and recorded the song The Whistlin 'Man - Jones' first own version of his later hit Handy Man . The Pretenders disbanded in the spring of 1959.
Top hits on both sides of the Atlantic
Jimmy Jones met songwriter and record producer Otis Blackwell , with whom he went into the studio in June 1959. Blackwell edited Jones' song Handy Man and produced a new demo recording with the author as vocalist. Since the flutist had not appeared for the recording session, Blackwell himself whistled on the recording. The song with the typical rock Jones falsetto vocals in the style of Clyde McPhatter and Sam Cooke were the two at MGM sell the him in September at their Club Records - Label published. Jimmy Jones had his first hit both in the US, where Handy Man rose to number two in the charts in 18 weeks, and a little later in the UK . In 1960 Jones also recorded Good Timin ' with Blackwell , a song by Fred Tobias and Clint Ballard Jr. Like Handy Man , the single sold more than a million times in the US; in Great Britain it captured number one position in the charts on July 7, 1960, which it was able to hold for three weeks.
After the great successes
After the hits, Jones was unable to keep his career at the high level, but the following year brought two more singles in the US and three in the UK to the lower regions of the charts. Although he only had two top ten hits, he remained a well-known songwriter and initially also as a singer in the music business. Between 1962 and 1967 he released other records on various labels, including a duet with Little Eva , Don't You Just Know It, on Parkway in 1966 . Little was heard from Jones in the 1970s and 1980s; In 1986 he was one of the artists of the Vintage Doo-Wop Rockers , who recorded Arthur Criers Don't Let Them Starve as a benefit record against hunger in Africa.
Influences on other artists
Del Shannon , who put Handy Man back on the charts as a cover version in 1964 , named Jones in the same breath as the Ink Spots as his main influence; Shannon, in turn, had a great influence on the singing of the Bee Gees' disco hits with his falsetto singing . In 1977 James Taylor also had a US number four hit with Handy Man .
In the 1990s, Jones released the album Grandma’s Rock & Roll Party with new recordings of his two big hits. During this time his music experienced a revival in the British Northern Soul movement . In 2002, his most popular songs were then re-released on the double CD Good Timin ': The Anthology .
Web links
- Literature by and about Jimmy Jones in the catalog of the German National Library
- Jimmy Jones in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Marv Goldberg: The Jimmy Jones Story
- Jimmy “Handyman” Jones at Allmusic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Moore County Obituaries ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Charts UK Charts US
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jones, Jimmy |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American rock 'n' roll and pop singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 2, 1937 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Birmingham , Alabama, USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | 2nd August 2012 |
| Place of death | Aberdeen , North Carolina, USA |