Jamaican-born singer JIMMY JAMES died in London on Tuesday, 14th May. He was aged 84 and his daughter, Lauren Mercurius-Mascoll posted that her father had passed away at Northwick Park Hospital. She said he’d been battling Parkinson’s disease and a heart condition which caused him to retire from performing.
James was born Michael James in 1940 and after moving to Kingston from his home town he found a job working with Jamica’s Revenue Department. He liked to write songs and one of his creations was ‘Come Softly To Me’. His demo version was picked up by a local label and in 1962 it topped the Jamaican pop chart. To further his burgeoning career James – now working as “Jimmy” James hooked up with a local band, The Vagabonds.
Jimmy and the band played ska, blues and calypso and in 1964 the band decided to relocate to London where ska and blue beat was making some inroads (witness ‘My Boy Lollipop’). In London, Jimmy and the Vagabonds came under the management of Peter Meaden (then also manager of The Who). Meaden secured the Vagabonds a residency at the famed mod club, the Marquee and the band’s sound soon changed – eschewing ska for soul and soon the band’s reputation for delivering an energetic soul revue secured them a cult reputation with the mods – a reputation shared with Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band. Memoirs suggest that there was no love lost between Geno and Jimmy!
Eventually signing with Pye Records, Jimmy and his band released the seminal LP, ‘The New Religion’ – a collection of covers of underground soul songs like the Dells’ ‘Hi Diddley Dee Dum’, the Impressions’ ‘Little Boy Blue’, Tony Clarke’s ‘The Entertainer’ and the Radiants’ ‘Ain’t No Big Thing’ (BVs on that one came from Doris Troy and Madeline Bell!). The album became a mod must have – remember original, rare soul was hard to come by back in those days!
More albums followed – again featuring wonderful covers of soul songs like the Dells’ ‘Wear It On Our Face’ and Willie Mitchell’s ‘That Driving Beat’ and in 1968, Jimmy and the band enjoyed a moderate hit with their version of the Neil Diamond song, ‘Red Red Wine’.
The original Vagabonds disbanded in 1970, but Jimmy, who owned the name, formed a “new” Vagabonds who eventually enjoyed major chart success with poppier songs like ‘I’ll Go Where Your Music Takes Me’ and ‘Now Is The Time’.
After the glory days Jimmy continued to perform – often working with Foundations’ singer Clem Curtis (who died in 2017) and in 2007 Jimmy sang lead on ‘The Other Side Of The Street’ – an Ian Levine creation for one of his “Northern” albums.
In 2010, Jimmy James was honoured by Tribute To The Greats, an organisation operated by Kingsley Goodison, for his contribution to Jamaican music. He is survived by his wife Paula, five sons, two daughters, and grandchildren.
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