Jimmy Dee is a rockabilly-rock and roll musician and singer from San Antonio, TX. He hit 47 on the Billboard Hot 50 in 1957 with the song "Henrietta", a rockabilly-style, early rock 'n' roll song that remained in the top 50 for ten weeks. He appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand TV program (Season 1, Episode 97) on December 4, 1957 during the 4:00 PM hour. Also featured were Danny and The Juniors.
Jimmy Dee, although a pre-teen, had by 1956 become a club attraction in the lounges of San Antonio. He later moved to Grand Prairie, Texas, near Dallas. He also resided in Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee and Chicago, Illinois, and eventually settled in the Birmingham, Alabama area where he was employed in several businesses through the years.
It is known that he was a member of the backing group for the Verve and MGM recording artist Sharon Wynter. He recorded and toured with her but did not sing on any of her recordings. Although he dated Sharon, he married her younger sister, Debra, in June 1967. The Sharon Wynter song Bad Dreams (Verve Records/Tree Publishing) relates a bit of the story of the romance of Jimmy and Debra.
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. It is thought he may have toured briefly with Shannon as his drummer. Shannon was instrumental in Dee recording for Big Top records. Those recordings which included the song I WANT A LOVE I CAN FEEL were later sold to Roulette and never released.
A contractual dispute with Morris Levy of Roulette Records caused his personal recording career to halt in early 1966. However, he reappeared later in the sixties and the mid-seventies and again in the eighties with several more records and produced one CD during the nineties. Through the course of his long career, Dee recorded on many record labels. Among them were TNT, DOT, Infinity, Big Top, Inner-Glo, Pixie, Start, Nashville, Gone, Ace, Canary, Cutie, Shurfine and possibly others.
During the years 1967 and 1968, he worked sessions in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, both at FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.
Dee worked as a nightclub entertainer throughout the 1960s, 1970s,and 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, the Echoes, during the revival of doo-wop during the early 1980s.
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 performed until 2007 when they disbanded with several members retiring.
Dee was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2007. Their website has both photos and samples of a few of Jimmy Dee's early recordings.
Jimmy Dee announced his retirement in December 2011, 54 years after his first hit and live television performance on American Bandstand. He and Debra remain married and they reside in Alabama near Birmingham.
The Music Pop Hits site has some low bit rate MP3s of some Jimmy Dee recordings through the years.
A radio program hosted by Dee titled Jim's Diner featuring fifties and sixties music is still available on the internet here. Some of these programs originally aired on WEEL, Dothan, Alabama. WEEL ceased broadcasting in 2009.