Born in Oklahome City, my family moved to California when I was 5. At about age 10 mom decided I should have music lessions. Of all the instruments, she and my father thought the accordion best.
While I enjoyed the accordion I wasn't a very good student. By my second lession I decided it was easier to write my own songs rather than learn those of others. The accordion lessions didn't last but a year or so, but my idea that I was a song writer was forever.
I became a "manager" at about 18 of a local band in San Diego. Got fired from a good job as I was spending too much time making day trips to Hollywood to promote the band and songs I'd written. Produced an instrumental recording ( "The Catapiller Crawl") with the band that made it to about #50 on the Billboard 100. We were cheated out of the money but learned a lot.
Moved to Hollywood at about 20 and got a job with a record distributor as a promoter. Met up with a young group of four guys that were starting a record company. They'd put out a couple of records with no success then got Gary Paxton a producer/artist (Cherry Pie/Skip & Flip) to produce a group they'd found called the Innocents. He produced a song they'd written ("Honest I Do"). I't made it to about #30 on the Billboard 100.
I took over the A&R duties of their label (Indigo Records). Found a girl I thought could do a song ("A Thousand Stars") that had been a hit as a "race record" 8 years earlier. I produced a recording featuring her (Kathy Young) in the lead using the Innocents as the vocal back drop.
It became a huge hit over night achieving Gold Record status. I produced some subsequent hits but nothing as big as "...Stars". I started my own label (Monogram Records). Had a Westcoast hit ("All You Had To Do Was Tell Me") with an artist (Chris Montez) I'd found.
I wrote a follow-up to that song which became a bigger hit than "...Stars". The song? "Let's Dance". I set up a tour for Chris in England. Chris headlind the show. 3rd on the bill was a group called "The Beatles".
To Be Continued...
http://www.broadjam.com/jimmyjoe