I met Jimmy Jones around 1960 although not in person and it would be many years before I found out what he looked like. But Jimmy Jones arrived at a time in my life when I was eighteen years old: a time when my mind and body was a melting pot of emotions and his unusual sound became one of the spices added to it. We never had a TV until much later in my life just a small plastic radio which I would take up to my bedroom and listen to all the latest records so I assume I heard it on one of those Jam sessions then later at the Lacarno club in Hurst Street Birmingham.
Jimmy Jones Was born in Birmingham Alabama In 1931 and raised alongside Gospel singers he had an unusual falsetto voice and a love of tap dancing which he developed by sticking bottle tops to the base of his shoes.
He wrote his first record ‘Handy Man’ Helped by Otis Blackwell which got to Number 2 in the USA and Number 3 in the UK this was followed by Good Timing which reached number 1 in the UK charts. Sadly he had no more hit records but to me these two records were classics and when I watch him singing them on You Tube along with his subtle dance routine it briefly brings back that moment in the sixties.
He was an excellent dancer and could backflip and land in a split position.
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