SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
An appreciation of JIMMY SCOTT
by Spencer Leigh

This feature was written to coincide with Jimmy Scott's London appearances in 2004 but they were cancelled and the piece was not used.

Van Morrison says that Jimmy Scott can “sing the rest of us off this planet”: Lou Reed calls him the greatest singer in the world: Marvin Gaye longed to sing ballads with the depth of Jimmy Scott: Madonna says he is the only singer who can make her cry, but relatively few people know of Jimmy Scott.

There are several reasons why. It is partly due to him signing a ridiculously restrictive recording contract and partly due to his limited and hackneyed repertoire, giving the impression that new albums are old ones. The fact that he is the slowest singer in the world is another factor, but the main reason is his freakish voice. Hear Jimmy Scott by chance on the radio and you will be convinced you are listening to a woman, and many listeners find that off-putting. As Nancy Wilson wrote in a sleeve note to an album in 1969, “Many vocalists, especially females, including myself, have patterned their styles from Little Jimmy Scott.”

If you know nothing of Jimmy Scott’s life, you might think I am making up the story that follows: nobody, it would seem, could live like this as one calamity follows another. His tribulations enhance his work: is any singer more aching or poignant on stage or on record than Jimmy Scott?

James Victor Scott was born in the black part of Cleveland, Ohio on 17 July 1925. He was the third of ten children to Arthur and Justine Scott. Arthur surfaced roads for a living, but he was feckless so that the family never had enough money. Justine took the family to church and sometimes Jimmy would sing to her piano accompaniment. Even when he was 10, he was singing behind the beat. She encouraged his talent knowing that he was both different and good.

Because Jimmy wasn’t growing, he was diagnosed with Kallmann’s Syndrome when he was 13. The syndrome stopped his body developing, stunting his growth at just under five foot. He had no sense of smell, his voice did not break and, a matter of some concern, he had small privates.

Around the same time, Justine put a hand out to save her daughter from a speeding car. Her arm got caught in the door handle and was wrenched from its socket. She died from a loss of blood. The drunken but wealthy driver donated $50,000 for the upkeep of the family, which a judge put in trust for the children but the money was never seen again. The children were placed in orphanages and foster homes.

Jimmy didn’t spent long in care. He was working from the age of 16, washing dishes, typing envelopes and being a cinema usher. He admired the way Paul Robeson could make a lyric come to life in Show Boat and he would study the lyrics of the great popular songs and consider how he might sing them himself. Once you know his background, you can sense that he is singing of his own plight when he performs ‘My Mother’s Eyes’, ‘Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child’ or ‘Why Was I Born?’. He stopped singing ‘The Loneliest House On The Street’ because, even by his standards, it was too emotional.

In 1945 Jimmy travelled in a road show starring a contortionist called Caledonia. He was 20 and he married a buxom, 16 year old waitress, more out of pity than anything else because he wanted to rescue her from abuse by her father. When they went on the road, she became a prostitute and they were divorced when he caught her with another man. Jimmy’s next relationship was with another large prostitute.

When he demanded his wages from one piano player, he was knocked to the ground and kicked in the head. He bought a gun and shot out the windows in the pianist’s house, but it taught him that he did not want to be a gangster. On the whole, he was earning reasonable money and when his brother, Justin, died after drinking contaminated water, his father sent him a telegram, “Justin is dead. Send money to pay for funeral.”

Hardly surprisingly, Jimmy started drinking and smoking reefers, but his friend, Charlie Parker (‘Bird’), warned him off heroin. A live recording from 1950 of Jimmy and Bird doing ‘Embraceable You’ surfaced in 1977 on the LP, One Night In Birdland, but the vocalist was wrongly identified as Chubby Newsome. Billie Holiday heard Jimmy at the Baby Grand club in New York and told him, “I heard what you’re doing and you’re doing it right.”

He auditioned for Lionel Hampton’s orchestra, who had discovered Dinah Washington and had Quincy Jones on trumpet. He sang ‘Why Was I Born?’ with the band and Hampton was impressed. Hampton loved gimmicks and called him Little Jimmy Scott. Because Jimmy, and sometimes the audience, would be in tears when he sang, he was also called Crying Jimmy Smith.

In 1950 he made his first recordings as the featured vocalist with Hampton’s orchestra. His version of ‘I Wish I Knew’ with flute, vibes and organ is exquisite. When he was handed a lyric by a fan, Regina Adams, ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’, he and the organist Doug Duke wrote a melody. He recorded it with Hampton but was disappointed that the record label said “vocal with orchestra” without giving him a namecheck. The disc-jockeys assumed that it was Hampton’s female vocalist, Irma Curry. To make matters worse, neither Doug or Jimmy were listed as composers, but Hampton’s wife, Gladys, took the credit instead. Jimmy had mixed feelings as the song climbed to No.6 on the R&B charts and it was to be his only hit record.

Around the same time, a white singer from Oregon, Johnnie Ray had much the same approach as Jimmy Scott, though it is not known whether he saw him or was influenced by him. Ray, a troubled individual, would become emotionally involved in his songs, stretching out the notes and weeping on stage. His million-selling ‘Cry’ was described in Billboard as “a cross between Kay Starr and Jimmy Scott”.

After leaving Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Scott worked in New York for various crooked agents and record company owners. He found a sympathetic producer, Freddy Mendelsohn, at Regal and then Roost Records. Although he had no hit records, he recorded exemplary performances of ‘The Masquerade Is Over’, ‘Talk Of The Town’ and ‘Rain In My Eyes’. The saxophonist Stan Getz joined Jimmy for ‘Do You Mind If I Hang Around?’, a Coral single from 1952.

Even in the cut-throat world of independent New York record companies, Herman Lubinksy had a heart of stone. Despite his meanness, he made records with Billy Eckstine, Errol Garner and Charlie Parker. Jimmy Scott signed with Lubinsky in 1955 and that signature was to ruin his career. At first, things went well. He made an album, Very Truly Yours, which included one of his greatest performances, ‘When Did You Leave Heaven?’. The gospel singer Cissy Houston - the mother of Whitney - joined him for ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’. A second album, If You Only Knew, followed in 1956. The records had little promotion and only sold to people who knew his work.. At the time many record companies paid for airplay (payola) but there was no question of that with Savoy: Herman Lubinsky would never pay anyone. Jimmy often sang ‘Unchained Melody’: if he had managed to get the song first, everything might have been so different.

Jimmy Scott married for a second time, this time to a hairdresser, Channie Booker. As his earnings were limited, he took a day job as a janitor in a building full of hookers and con men. They bought a house, but one day she returned with a new man. Jimmy, who was cutting the grass, threw the mower through the windscreen of his rival’s car. When Billie Holiday died in 1959, Jimmy Scott attended in dark glasses because Channie had given him a black eye. When they parted, he gave her the house.

With the advent of rock’n’roll in the mid-50s, Jimmy Scott found himself, somewhat incongruously, performing on package shows and working with Bo Diddley and Little Richard. During a short time with King Records, he cut some teenage tracks to which he was unsuited. There were some classics with the label though, ‘What Sin Have I Committed?’ and ‘When Day Is Done’. Undoubtedly, Frankie Lymon was influenced by Jimmy Scott and also Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons, who sought his advice. He told Valli, “Sing as slow as you want: it’s the band’s job to follow you.” Joe Pesci followed Jimmy around and he made an album, almost as a homage, Little Joe Sure Can Sing, before becoming an actor.

Scott returned to Savoy, but the singles, which included ‘I May Never’, were aimed at the rock’n’roll market. His third Savoy album, The Fabulous Songs Of Jimmy Scott, included ‘Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child’.

Ray Charles’ girl singers were known as the Raelets because they let Rae have his way with them. For a time, Jimmy lived with one of them, Mary Ann Fisher, and she recommended Jimmy for Ray’s new label, Tangerine. Ray was delighted, especially at the thought of playing piano behind Jimmy’s voice. In 1962, they recorded a very romantic album of standards, Falling In Love Is Wonderful, several of the songs being associated with Sinatra. Ray Charles, who also produced the record with Joe Adams, used the arrangers Marty Paich and Gerald Wilson who had contributed to Ray’s million-selling LP, Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music.

Supposedly to help the album’s sales, Jimmy Scott was not shown on the cover and instead we had a Lothario making out with a beautiful girl. No matter, the album was quickly withdrawn. Herman Lubinsky maintained that Jimmy was under contract to Savoy and rather than contest this or come to an agreement, Ray Charles withdrew the album. In a bizarre move, he erased Jimmy’s vocals and asked the organist Wild Bill Davis to play over the tracks. Hence, Wild Bill’s album, Wonderful World Of Love. On his 1967 album, Ray Charles Invites You To Listen, Ray sings standards in a high register, emulating Jimmy Scott.

Whilst Jimmy was making the album, his father showed up as selfish as ever and demanding to move in with Jimmy and Mary Ann. It destroyed their relationship but when Jimmy returned to Cleveland, he married for the third time, this time to a nurse, Ruth Taylor, in 1965.

Because Jimmy is black, the police often stopped him. From time to time, he was taken to a police station and strip searched. He would be humiliated, standing in the nude while the police laughed at his genitals. Around 1965 he suddenly started growing and, much to his surprise, found that he was five foot six. A doctor recommended hormone injections to resolve the syndrome but Jimmy decided against it as it might have changed his voice.

In 1969 a DJ who had moved into record production, Joel Dorn, asked Jimmy to make an album for Atlantic. Jimmy arrived for the session with no teeth: he had had his remaining teeth extracted and he couldn’t afford his dentures. Dorn gave him the money and, if you listen really hard to The Source, you can hear a small whistle! It was worth collecting those teeth as it is a superb album. Jimmy is at his best on ‘Day By Day’ and he is reunited with Cissy Houston for ‘On Broadway’ which brings out a frustration and resignation that is not in the Drifters’ original.

This time, there was a female model on the cover, and once again, Herman Lubinsky claimed that Jimmy Scott was not free to record. This should have been challenged but again, the LP was withdrawn. However, Atlantic was flush with money and a second album was recorded, even though there was no hope of a release. Several of these tracks can now be found on Sequel’s Lost And Found from 1994. Jimmy Scott’s marriage was strained but he included a reference to “Ruthie and Jim” in ‘The Folks Who Live On The Hill’.

Most of the time Jimmy was a clerk at the Sheraton Hotel in Cleveland and attending to his sick father. In 1972 he had an accident in the hotel and damaged his foot. It left him with a limp and he was to receive $300 a month for the rest of his life. Ruth was unhappy about this, feeling that he should have demanded a larger settlement. Also in 1972, Michael Jackson acknowledged his debt to Scott by recording ‘Everybody Somebody’s Fool’ on his Ben album.

By 1974 Herman Lubinsky was dying and at last Jimmy Scott would be free of his obligations. Freddy Mendelsohn produced one final album for Savoy and Jimmy wrote new lyrics for the title song, Can’t We Begin Again. By now, Jimmy was singing slower than ever - just hear his version of ‘Close Your Eyes’. During his 20 year period at Savoy, Jimmy had only recorded around 60 sides.

Jimmy Scott continued working in the hotel, but when he married for the fourth time in 1985, his wife, another nurse Earlene Rodgers, did much to encourage him back into the business. He was also helped by his friend, the New York songwriter, Doc Pomus, who wrote in Billboard in 1987: “When we talk about Jimmy Scott, we’re talking about somebody who might the best singer of contemporary or vintage ballads around. There must be some space somewhere for him. What’s everybody waiting for? He’s 62 years old, he’ll die and there’ll be a hot funeral. Everybody will show up in hip mourning clothes and talk about how great he was. Let’s do something now.”

Nothing much happened but Jimmy did get $15,000 from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. He used the money to start his own record label, J’s Way, releasing an album of original songs for sale at gigs, Doesn’t Love Mean More. He also used the money to record some little-known artists. He appeared in the final episode of Twin Peaks.

Doc Pomus died in 1991 and Jimmy Scott with Dr. John on organ performed ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ at his funeral. Seymour Stein, the founder of Sire Records, was so impressed that he signed Jimmy the following day. The noted producer, Tommy LiPuma, worked with him on an album of standards, All The Way. The album sold 50,000 and Jimmy received his first Grammy nomination. His second Sire album, Dream, a low-key affair with some top jazz musicians sold 25,000, and then a spiritual album, Heaven, only sold 6,000.

In 1998 Jimmy moved to Artists Only Records and made his first contemporary album, Holding Back The Years. The title song came from Simply Red and the album included songs from John Lennon, Elvis Costello and Elton John. ‘The Crying Game’ was a perfect title for him and he made a good job of ‘Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word’.

Since then we have had four albums of standards for Milestone, a subsidiary of the jazz label, Fantasy - Moon Indigo, Over The Rainbow, But Beautiful and Moon Glow. They have been recorded with some wonderful musicians and he has been very productive at this late stage in his career. His phrasing, if anything, is more capricious than ever: it would be impossible for someone who did not the Moon Glow album to sing along with the standards.

He has toured with Lou Reed and David Byrne, performed with Manhattan Transfer at President Clinton’s first inaugural ball, and appeared with Jools Holland and in the video for Madonna’s Secret. He has contributed to albums (Lou Reed’s Magic And Loss, David Sanborn’s Pearls) and film soundtracks (Glengarry Glen Ross, Philadelphia, Rage In Harlem, Albino Alligator). David Ritz wrote his biography in Faith In Time - The Life Of Jimmy Scott (Da Capo, 2002), an excellent book with some silly mistakes: the Connie Francis hit, ‘Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool’, was a different song.

His private life has changed again. He divorced Earlene after she spent too much time nursing her mother and he now lives with an admirer, Jeanie McCarthy. He also has his own group, the Jazz Expressions. In January 2004 and looking his age, Jimmy Scott collapsed while singing ‘Motherless Child’ at Ronnie Scott’s. It had been brought on my fatigue but he completed his engagement.

Jimmy Scott is still killing us softly with his songs and I hope that he makes an all-star album with, say, Van Morrison, Lou Reed and Willie Nelson before he stops performing as the contrast in the voices would be very illuminating. Any performer with a life like Jimmy Scott’s would be sitting on a goldmine for the movie rights. However, a film of Jimmy Scott’s life can never be made. Whoever could they find to play him?

JIMMY SCOTT - THE ORIGINAL ALBUMS

Albums - LPs
Savoy MG 12027 VERY TRULY YOURS (1955)
Savoy MG 14003 IF YOU ONLY KNEW (1956)
Savoy MG12150 THE FABULOUS SONGS OF JIMMY SCOTT (1959)
Tangerine TRCS 1501 FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL (1962)
Atlantic SD 8284 THE SOURCE (1969)
Savoy MG 16003 CAN’T WE BEGIN AGAIN (1975)

Albums - CDs
J’s Way JVCD 001 DOESN’T LOVE MEAN MORE (1990)
Sire 7599 26955 2 ALL THE WAY (1992)
Sire 9362 45629 2 DREAM (1994)
WEA 9 46211 2 HEAVEN (1996)
Artists Only AOR 11 HOLDING BACK THE YEARS (1998)
Milestone MCD 9305 2 MOOD INDIGO (2000)
Milestone MCD 9314 2 OVER THE RAINBOW (2001)
Milestone MCD 9321 2 BUT BEAUTIFUL (2002)
Milestone MCD 9332 2 MOON GLOW (2003)
Venus TKGV 1004 LIVE IN TOKYO (Japan only, 2003)

Compilations
Specialty SPCD2170 2 LITTLE JIMMY SCOTT AND THE PAUL GAYTEN BAND LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS (A 1951 concert first issued in 1991)
Sequel RSACD 804 LOST AND FOUND (Compilation of Atlantic tracks, 1994)
Savoy Jazz 16003 LITTLE JIMMY SCOTT: THE SAVOY YEARS AND MORE (Recordings for Regal, Roost and Savoy, 3-CD, 1999)

Where to start

Warner Jazz SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME (2-CD compilation, one unissued track, 2004)