Biography

Jimmie Rodgers (sometimes billed as Jimmie F. Rodgers to differentiate him from the legendary country singer) was a versatile vocalist whose warm, gentle style lent itself to light rock & roll, folk, country, and easy listening styles. He enjoyed success with young audiences in the late 1950s and early '60s, and his approach was adaptable enough to earn him a more mature audience in the mid-'60s. The hit singles that made him famous -- "Honeycomb," "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," "Oh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again," "Secretly" -- are collected on the 1990 anthology The Best of Jimmie Rodgers, while the 1969 album Windmills of Your Mind is a superior latter-day effort. James Frederick Rodgers was born in Camas, Washington on September 18, 1933. Rodgers' mother was an accomplished pianist who taught her son to play, and as a youngster he also sang in the choir at church. After graduating from high school, Rodgers went to college, but after a year he left to join the Air Force and served in Korea. While overseas, Rodgers bought a second-hand guitar and formed a singing group with some of his pals, giving him a taste for performing. After serving in Korea, Rodgers was transferred to a base near Nashville, Tennessee in 1954, and he started performing at local night spots in his spare time. In 1956, he returned to Washington and continued to pursue a career in music; he performed on Art Linkletter's television show House Party during a trip to Los Angeles, and the same year traveled to New York City to appear on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts program, where his performance of the song "Honeycomb" caught the ears of producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Peretti and Creatore arranged for Rodgers to sign a deal with Roulette Records, and in 1957, his recording of "Honeycomb" went all the way to number one on the pop charts. Rodgers' next two singles, "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" and "Uh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again," also went Top Ten, and while his fifth release, "Secretly," would prove to be his last visit to the Top Ten, he continued to record and tour, and hosted his own television series in 1959. Rodgers had a falling out with Roulette over their failure to pay royalties, and in 1962 he signed with Dot Records. On Dot, Rodgers landed a few singles on the Adult Contemporary charts, but while he was still in demand as a live act, his recording career remained cool until 1966, when his recording of "It's Over" broke into the lower reaches of the Top 40. Rodgers also dabbled in acting, making his screen debut in 1961's The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come and co-starring in the 1964 film Back Door to Hell (which also featured a young Jack Nicholson). In 1967, Rodgers signed a new deal with A&M Records, and his career was looking up; his song "Child of Clay'' rose to number 31 on the singles charts, and his first album for the label was faring well. But his good luck abandoned him on December 1, 1967; an assailant brutally beat Rodgers and left him with a severe skull fracture that had to be repaired with a metal plate. While he survived the attack, it left him with ongoing health problems that often interfered with his career (including a recurring case of spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that impacts the vocal cords and makes it difficult to sing), and he would record only three more albums after 1967 -- including Windmills of Your Mind -- though he hosted a summer replacement TV series in 1969 and was a guest on Johnny Cash's variety show in 1970. In time, Rodgers recovered to the point that he could return to performing in the late 1990s, playing nightclubs and appearing in a Branson, Missouri show called "Golden Girls U.S.A." In 2007, he successfully underwent surgery that removed the plate in his head after his fracture finally healed, and in 2010 he published his memoirs, Dancing on the Moon: The Jimmie Rodgers Story. Rodgers spent the last years of his life living quietly in Palm Springs, California; he died on January 18, 2021 at the age of 87. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi