I think I first became aware of Jimmy Lewis in the mid 70s when I bought the Stax Story compilation album, his song Stop Half Loving These Women was on it and has always stuck in my mind. A few years later it was another compilation album that led me to his excellent The Girls From Texas. It has taken me all this time, though, to buy any of his singles - two this year of which this is one.
Until looking at his catalog this year, I didn't really know how prolific he was. As a singer he has over twenty singles to his name, and quite a few albums too, spanning a few decades. He was also a respected songwriter, producer, and arranger with no less than 246 writing and arrangement credits on Discogs. I was going to call him a journeyman, but I think he was more than that. He was also a member of The Drifters for a couple of years in the 60s. Ray Charles bumped into him in 1968, liked what he found, and the connection lasted into the 90s, starting off with six 45s released on Charles' Tangerine label, of which this one was the first. In the mid 90s Jimmy started his own label - Miss Butch - and racked up a reasonable number of releases - both singles and albums (CD and cassette only in those days when vinyl had virtually died out completely). He also, evidently, teamed up with Peggy Scott and she also had a few releases on the label. I've randomly dived into a few tracks off these albums and I think they stand up pretty well considering the era in which they were released (after all the golden age of Soul was long past), there is the low budget production to deal with - inevitable with someone who is essentially self releasing and promoting their output, but the songwriting is strong, as is his voice - Bobby Womack and Joe Tex comes to mind at times.
He was still very much active and releasing and writing music (his discography on Discogs lists an album with a 2004 release date) when on September 11th 2004, at age 66, he passed away, too young.
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