From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Jun 2, 2002  2:05 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Jimmy Jones
 
JIMMY JONES

Born 2 June 1937, Birmingham, Alabama

Singer. Jones, who had spent a long apprenticeship singing in the R&B
doo-wop groups, became a rock 'n' roll star in the early '60s singing
"Handy Man" and other hits with a dramatic and piercingly high falsetto.
He began his career as a tap dancer, and in 1955 joined a vocal group,
the Sparks Of Rhythm. In 1956 Jones formed his own group, the Savoys,
which were renamed the Pretenders in 1956. With all these groups,
tracks were recorded in the prevailing doo-wop manner but with no
discernable success beyond a few local radio plays in the New York/New
Jersey area. Success finally came when Jones began a solo career, signing
with MGM's Cub subsidiary in 1959 and hitting with his debut, "Handy Man"
(# 3 R&B / # 2 pop in 1960). Retaining the same falsetto style, he followed
up with "Good Timin'" (# 8 R&B / # 3 pop in 1960), but the fall off in sales
was considerable for his two other US chart entries, "That's When I Cried"
(# 83 pop 1960) and "I Told You So" (# 85 pop 1961).
The whistling on "Handy Man" comes courtesy of the recently deceased
Otis Blackwell, who co-wrote the song with Jimmy.
Not forgetting the UK perspective that our list host has emphasized a few
days ago: In the UK, Jones's chart success was exceptional compared to
most of his US contemporaries. In 1960 Handy Man reached number 3,
Good Timin' number 1, I Just Go For You number 35, Ready For Love
number 46 and I Told You So number 33. Jimmy toured the British Isles
in October/November 1960.
"Handy Man" was revived on the charts twice, by Del Shannon in 1964 and
by James Taylor in 1977.

Discography: http://members.tripod.com/SoulfulKindaMusic/jjones.htm
CD : Good Timin' : The Anthology (Castle, 2 CD's). Released in 2002.