Jimmy Bowen

For the rugby union player, see Jimmy Bowen (rugby union).

Jimmy Bowen
Trading card photo of Bowen in 1957; his last name is misspelled on the card.
Background information
Birth nameJames Albert Bowen
Born (1937-11-30) November 30, 1937 (age 87)
Santa Rita, New Mexico, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)Record producer, singer, bassist
Years active1957–present

James Albert Bowen (born November 30, 1937)[2] is an American record producer and former rockabilly singer. Bowen brought Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood together, and introduced Sinatra to Mel Tillis for their album, Mel & Nancy.

Early life

Bowen was born in Santa Rita, New Mexico, United States.[2] His family moved to Dumas, Texas, when he was eight years old.[3]

Singing career

Bowen began as a teenage recording star in 1957 with "I'm Stickin' with You".[2] The song started as the flip side of the hit record "Party Doll" by Buddy Knox (written by Knox and Bowen), but ultimately hit the charts on its own, peaking at No. 14 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Bowen's version sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold record.[4] Bowen's singing career did not take off as well as that of Knox, his partner in the Rhythm Orchids, and ultimately he abandoned a singing career, choosing to stay in the production end of the music industry.[2]

Producer and music executive

In the early 1960s, in Los Angeles, California, he bucked the decade's rock phenomenon when Frank Sinatra hired him as a record producer for Reprise Records, and Bowen showed a strong knack for production, generating chart hits for Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bert Kaempfert and Sammy Davis Jr., regarded as too old-fashioned for the market at the time.[5] Among the songs Bowen produced for Sinatra was the 1966 "Strangers in the Night", which went to No. 1 in the US and UK, and won three Grammy Awards in 1967, including Record of the Year for Bowen.

Bowen also produced Dino, Desi & Billy, a group which included Dean Martin's son, and Desi Arnaz' and Lucille Ball's son.

In mid-1968, Bowen launched an independent record label, Amos Records,[2] which lasted until 1971. Leaving Los Angeles for Nashville, Tennessee, Bowen became president of a series of record labels, and took each one to country music preeminence. His success stories during the second half of the 1970s and 1980s involved Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams Jr., The Oak Ridge Boys, Reba McEntire, George Strait, Suzy Bogguss, Kim Carnes and Garth Brooks. Bowen helped Conway Twitty make the 1983 album Merry Twismas, which was one of Conway's No. 1 selling albums. Bowen also revolutionized the way music was recorded in Nashville, introducing digital technology and modernizing the way in which instruments such as drums, for example, were recorded and mixed.[6]

In 1991, Bowen produced Andy Williams' well received album "Nashville".

In 1988, Bowen founded a label named Universal Records (not to be confused with the much more famous Universal Records of 1995 to 2005), which he sold to Capitol Records a year later.[7]

Soundtracks

Bowen produced his first movie soundtrack in 1970, for Vanishing Point, which was released in 1971. That soundtrack contains three songs which he composed, as well as music from the band Mountain and from Big Mama Thornton. The three Bowen pieces are an incidental theme called "Love Theme", credited to Jimmy Bowen Orchestra, and two others, "Super Soul Theme" and the hard-rock piece "Freedom of Expression", credited to The J.B. Pickers.[8] Other soundtracks include the movies Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), The Slugger's Wife (1985) and the soundtrack of the theater play Big River (1988).[8]

Personal life

He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and holds an MBA with honors from Belmont University.[9] He married singer Keely Smith in 1965 and produced her recordings for Reprise Records. The couple divorced in 1969.[10] He lives with his present wife Ginger in Longmont, Colorado.[citation needed]

Discography

Albums

Year Album Record label
1957 Jimmy Bowen Roulette Records
1959 Buddy Knox & Jimmy Bowen
1966 Sunday Morning with the Comics Reprise Records
2002 Vanishing Point Original Soundtrack Harkit Records

Singles

Year Title Peak chart
positions 		Record Label B-side Album
US Pop US R&B
1957 "I'm Stickin' with You" 14 9 Roulette Records "Ever Lovin' Fingers" (BB #63) Jimmy Bowen
"Warm Up to Me Baby" 57 — "I Trusted You"
"Don't Tell Me Your Troubles" — — "Ever Since That Night"
"Cross Over" — — "It's Shameful"
1958 "The Two Step" — — "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (BB #50) Buddy Knox & Jimmy Bowen
"My Kind of Woman" — — "Blue Moon"
"Always Faithful" — — "Wish I Were Tied to You"
1959 "Walkin' on Air" — — "You're Just Wasting Your Time"
1960 "(I Need) Your Loving Arms" — — "Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah! Mm Mm"
1961 "Teenage Dreamworld" — — Capehart Records "It's Against the Law"
"Somebody to Love" — — Crest Records "Don't Drop It"
1964 "The Big Bus" — — Reprise Records "The Biggest Lover in Town"
1965 "The Golden Eagle" — — "Spanish Cricket"
1966 "Captain Gorgeous" — — "Wonder Mother" Sunday Morning with the Comics
1967 "It's Such a Pretty World Today" — — "Raunchy"

Bibliography

  • Bowen, Jimmy; Jerome, Jim (1997). Rough Mix. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0684807645.

References

  1. ^ a b Unterberger, Richie. "Jimmy Bowen". Allmusic. Retrieved September 4, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 302. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
  3. ^ Callahan, Mike; Eyries, Patrice; Edwards, Dave. "Amos Album Discography". Amos Records. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  4. ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie & Jenkins. p. 89. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
  5. ^ Unterberger, Richie. "Jimmy Bowen Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  6. ^ Clark, Rick (September 1, 2003). "Nashville Skyline". Mix. ISSN 0164-9957. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008.
  7. ^ Kingsbury, Paul, ed. (1998). The Encyclopedia of Country Music. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195176087.
  8. ^ a b Ribeiro, Márcio. "O Tema do Globo Repórter". Whiplash.net (in Portuguese). Retrieved June 18, 2012.
  9. ^ Bowen, Jimmy; Jerome, Jim (1997). Rough Mix. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0684807645.
  10. ^ "Keely Smith Granted Default Divorce". The Palm Beach Post. July 30, 1969.

Further reading