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Jimmy Dee, San Antonio, Texas, musician and singer scored a hit in the Billboard Top 50 with the song Henrietta, an early Rock 'n' Roll song. He appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand TV program shortly afterwards. Jimmy was an early performer of Rock 'n' Roll, a music that would sweep the country, and the world, in a new direction in popular music and performance. He is considered a Rockabilly great and one of the founders of Rock 'n' Roll music.
By the age of twelve, he was an attraction in clubs and lounges, and began recording before he was thirteen. He recorded for eleven different labels over the course of his long career.
It is known that he was once a member of the backing group, The Chevelles, for the Verve recording artist Sharon Wynter and recorded and also toured with her, but due to his personal contractual obligations, did not sing on any of her recordings. He married her sister in 1967.
He worked as a session musician in Memphis and later in Nashville, Tennessee during the sixties. He is also credited on one of Del Shannon's tracks "Tell Her No", 1965, on drums and back-up vocals. He recorded with Shannon, as his drummer, and toured with him.
During the years 1967-1969 he worked sessions in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, both at FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.
A contractual dispute with Morris Levy, head of Roulette Records, caused his personal recording career to halt in 1966. However, he reappeared later in the sixties and the mid-seventies and again in the eighties on smaller labels with several more records and released one CD during the nineties and another in 2007 and his last in 2008.
Dee worked as a night club entertainer throughout the 1960s and into the 1980s. He would seem to disappear for several years and then suddenly return to performing. From late 1969 until 1975 he seemed to have abandoned music, and then suddenly reappeared playing clubs and released several new records from 1975 to 1978. He faded once again in 1979 and then returned in 1983 with a Doo Wop group during the revival of Doo Wop in the early 1980s. He played the hotel circuit during the eighties.
From 1985 to 1987, he once again seemed to have quit the business, but reappeared again in 1987 and formed a new band and they were known to have been performing in 2008. The band retired and disbanded in October 2008 and Jimmy Dee became a single performer for the first time in his career.
Jimmy Dee was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2007. Jimmy and his lovely wife, Debra, whom Jimmy often refers to as 'Baby', live in Alabama today. He spends time as a concert promoter and doing his syndicated radio program each week. He is involved with Last Chance Promotions producing oldies concerts and still performs to appreciative audiences.
A FAN TALKS ABOUT JIMMY DEE
My first encounter with the name Jimmy Dee took place when I heard his "Henrietta" played on a jukebox. It was a jukebox where you could easily see the label and the catalogue number as the record was spinning around, so I noticed that this was yet another great rocker on my favourite label, London (FL 1718, Dutch pressing ; there was no release on London American in the UK at the time). Not many copies were printed of this Dutch release, and when I started collecting records in the sixties it proved to be quite hard to find. But my friend owned a copy of the London single and taped both sides for me. The very rare Dutch pressing on London label mentioned in this article. Owned by Henk Gorter of Holland. Submitted by Mr. Gorter.
The flip, "Don't Cry No More", wasn't bad either, though lacking the raucous intensity of the A-side. "Henrietta", credited to Jimmy Dee and the Offbeats", was originally recorded for Bob Tanner's San Antonio based TNT label. Strong local sales prompted Dot Records to purchase the master and with the promotion of this much bigger label, "Henrietta" went to # 47 on the Billboard charts. The song has become a minor classic. It was the first record Bob Dylan ever bought, and the song featured in his early pre-folk repertoire. There was a cover by Don Barber on Personality Records and "Henrietta" has been revived by Doug Sahm, the Trashmen and Freddie Fender (who cut a version in Spanish, "Enriquetta"), among others.
The follow-up, "You're Late Miss Kate", is another volcanic rocker, again written by Dee himself (credited as "Fore" on the label) in cooperation with Larry Hitzfeld, who was probably one of the Offbeats, Dee's backing group. Again, it was originally released on TNT (152) and then on Dot (15721). But the record failed to chart, and Dot passed on its option to license Dee's third single, "I Feel Like Rockin'"/" Rock-Tick-Tock" (TNT 161), on which a 17-year old Doug Sahm (Sir Douglas Quintet) played guitar. 
Jimmy Dee recorded for Inner-Glo, Pixie, and Nashville, releasing The Monster Hop in 1963 and Please Don't Go in 1964, but he doesn't sound like the Little Jimmy Dee on TNT, DOT or Infinity, nor the Jimmy Dee on Ace and Scope. He can be found on Big Top and Roulette both issued in 1965. Some of his better recordings are found on Inner-Glo and Pixie where he found freedom to record his own arrangements.
A further Jimmy Dee track, previously un-released, "That's What I Call Love", emerged on a White Label LP ("Rock, Rock, Rock", LP 8805) in the 1980s. An output of thirty known tracks can be attributed to Jimmy Dee. "Henrietta", and to a lesser extent, "You're Late Miss Kate", has ensured Jimmy Dee's immortality as one of the original rock 'n' roll artists. When all of his tracks are gathered and heard, then one can better appreciate this artist over the course of a long career as a performer and recording artist.
Both "Henrietta" and "You're Late Miss Kate" have been reissued heavily, but there are only three CDs that contain both songs:
Dot Rock 'n' Roll (Ace 592, released in 1996) and That'll Flat Git It, Vol. 5 (Dot) on Bear Family BCD 15711, issued in 1997. Ace released Henrietta on a compilation CD, American Rock 'n' Roll, in 2007. Ascot released Remember When in 2008.  
And the answer to our Photo Page quiz is: 
'Little' Jimmy Dee
compiled and written by Steve Burrows
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