born on sept 2 1940 down where the mississippi just keeps rollin along is the louisiana town of baton rouge, deep in the sounds of blues, and cajun music flavored with some folk country played to a different beat is what jimmy clanton grew up listening to. of all the southern states louisiana is steeped in traditions from the food they eat to the songs they like to hear to the different way they catch fish, turtles, crawfish, crab, and shrimp. they put em together in a pot along with “hot peppers” pork, and so many kinds of flavoring and sauce’s that people come from miles around to taste the delightful dish’s cooked up in ” louisiana style ” found no place else in the world but from the “swamp living cajuns ” of the bay-ou’s. lots of young men raised up in this tradition were a part of the rock a billy explosion of the 50′s in louisiana. jimmy clanton was among the many artist who came out of this part of the south who played music, wrote songs, and sang what they wrote. jimmy clanton had an interest in music and performing a an early age. he formed his first band while in baton rouge high school called “the dixie cats”. later he teamed up with dick holler and they formed a band called ” the rockets”. they performed at local clubs and on a radio program called “teen town rally”. in 1957 jimmy, dick and the band went down to new orleans to record in cosimo matassa recording studio on rampart street. jimmy had written a song titled “just a dream”. matassa was impressed with jimmy’s voice and got him in touch with johnny vincent who owned “ace” records in jackson, ms. vincent signed jimmy to his “ace” label and cosimo matassa became his manager. in the summer of 1958 “just a dream” was released and quickly became a natiowide hit reaching no. 4 on the billboard record charts. jimmy clanton had a smash hit and not long afterward he was performing on dick clark’s nationwide teen show “american bandstand”. by december of 1958 ” just a dream” had sold over a million records. jimmy had several hits from 1958 thru the early 60′s. he charted with “my own true love” “go, jimmy go”, “another sleepless night”, written by neil sedaka and “venus in blue jeans”. while things were hot and heavy in his musical life he toured with fats domino and jerry lee lewis also from louisiana. he also performed in two rock n roll movies one produced by alan freed “go johnny go” and another movie titled ” teenage millionaire”. he was drafted into the army in 1961 and served two years. by 1964 the beatles had taken over rock music lock stock and barrel. after his release from the army in 1964 the whole music scene had changed so much none of the rock artist of the 50′s with the exception of “elvis” who was in his silly movie making mode and releasing silly records as well could find air play. the onslaught of “british artist”, covered radio air play in america like a blanket. jimmy left the music business and went into the radio business. today he performs at various nite clubs and state fairs through out america doing an occasional “rock revival show”. jimmy has in past years has performed at the new orleans jazz fest with frankie ford and chuck berry. mostly jimmy enjoys the good life of just taking it easy these days and why not he’s entitled to it. yes sir “another sleepless night” now that is an “ace” of a love song, jimmy ole buddy ole pal you just can’t improve on that one, it stands the test of time as a ” classic”. maybe dr. ike will get “jimmy clanton” to perform at the next “ponderosa stomp”. now thats a good idea even if i did kinda think of it first.

~ Widmarc Clark