From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Sun Feb 16, 2003 2:22 am Subject: Born To Be With You : Jimmy Wakely JIMMY WAKELY (By Alain Dormoy) Born James Clarence Wakely 16 February 1914, Mineola or near Mineola, Arkansas. Died 23 (or 25 according to one source source) September 1982, Mission Hills, California. Jimmy Wakely grew up in Oklahoma, moving several times as his parents struggled to make a living, usually by sharecropping. After forming the Bell Trio, later known as the Jimmy Wakely Trio, with Johnny Bond and Dick Reinhart, the group performed on WKY in Oklahoma City beginning in 1937. Gene Autry heard them and invited the trio west to L.A. They became regulars on his Melody Ranch radio show and would later on play in his films. Wakely made his first appearance in the US country charts in 1944 with "I'm Sending You Red Roses". Jimmy Wakely is credited for having introduced the "cheating song" genre to country music with "One Has My Name, The Other Has My Heart", a # 1 hit in 1949, and the million selling "Slipping Around", a duet with Margaret Whiting which reached # 1 on both the pop and country charts in Billboard. Along with Rex Allen, he was also one of the last of the classic singing cowboy movie and recording stars. He made his first screen appearance in 1939, in the Roy Rogers picture "Saga Of Death Valley", topping the bill for the first time in 1944 in "Song Of The Range". He went on to star in more than 20 films of the same genre from then to 1949. He had become so popular as an actor that in 1948 he was voted the number 4 cowboy star after Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Charles Starrett. His suave voice made people call him the Bing Crosby of Country music. When his chart successes became fewer and fewer in the '50s, he began hosting a CBS radio programme. In 1961, he and Tex Ritter co-hosted Five Star Jubilee, an extension of the Old Ozark Jubilee TV show. Jimmy went on performing up until his death from emphysema in 1982. Significant recordings: "Vintage collection" (Capitol 1996) with emphasis on the more pop oriented part of Wakely's work, whereas "Jimmy Wakely" (Simitar/Pickwick 1998) is a lot more swing and country based. Book : Linda Lee Wakely, See Ya Up There Baby : A Biography of Jimmy Wakely. (Out of print.) Websites: http://home.att.net/~llscribe/ http://www.surfnetinc.com/chuck/wakely.htm