Jimmy Dean (b. Jimmy Ray Dean August 10, 1928, in Plainview, Texas) is an American country music singer, actor, and businessman. Although most people know him today as the founder of the food company Jimmy Dean Food Company, he actually started off his career as a Country Music singer back in the 1960s, scoring big country crossover hits like "Big Bad John".
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Country Music Career
Jimmy Dean became a professional entertainer after a stint in the U.S. Air Force in the late 1940s. He became the host of the popular Washington D.C. TV program Town and Country Time and, with his Texas Wildcats, became favorites in the region. Both Patsy Cline and Roy Clark got their starts with Dean, who eventually fired Clark, his lead guitarist, for his chronic tardiness. Dean replaced Roy Clark with Billy Grammer. Patsy Cline and Dean were good friends during the run of the Town Country Time TV show in the mid-50s. He had his first hit, "Bummin' Around," in 1953, but had no other hits the rest of the decade.
Dean went on to New York in the 1950s where he hosted another TV variety show for CBS and signed with Columbia Records. For several years in the late 50's and early 60's, he was a host of the CBS News Morning Show which aired prior to Captain Kangaroo. He replaced Will Rogers, Jr., who did the show in 1958.
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He became best known for his 1961 song "Big Bad John," recorded in Nashville, that went to No.1 on the Billboard charts. The song won Dean the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. He had several more Top 40 songs including a Top 10 in 1962 with "PT-109", a song in honor of PT-109 and John F. Kennedy. In 1959, he was the regular host of the CBS News morning program. In the early 1960s he also hosted the Tonight Show on occasion and one night introduced Roy Clark, with whom he'd remained friendly, to a wider audience, something that helped Clark enhance his career.
His mid-1960s ABC television variety show was one of the first to present country music entertainers with dignity and class, on their terms. Roger Miller, George Jones, Charlie Rich, Buck Owens and a few like Joe Maphis, who seldom got any network TV exposure. He's also best remembered for his regular sketches with one of Jim Henson's long running muppet, Rowlf the Dog. Many guests who were not remotely related to country music appeared on the show, as it was considered a solid entertainment program, and it did offer the priceless "exposure" that is the food and drink of show business acts.
When the show ended, he began to dabble in acting in the late 1960s, with his best-known role being that of millionaire Willard Whyte in the 1971 James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever. Dean also performed around the country.
Because of the similarities in their names, Jimmy Dean is often confused for actor James Dean in song lyric references such as Madonna's "Vogue" or David Essex's "Rock On."
Later Singing Career
Dean's singing career remained strong into the mid 1960's and in 1965, he achieved a second number 1 country hit with the ballad "The First Thing Every Morning (And The Last Thing Every Night)" and had a Top 40 hit that year with "Harvest of Sunshine". In 1966, Dean signed with RCA Records and immediately had a Top 10 hit with "Stand Beside Me". His other major hits during this time included "Sweet Misery" (1967) and "A Thing Called Love" (1968). He continued having hits well into the early 1970's with his major hits during this time included a duet with Dottie West called "Slowly" (1971) and a solo hit with "The One You Say Good Morning To" (1972).
In 1976, he achieved a million seller with a recitation song as a tribute to his mother and mothers everywhere called "I.O.U.". The song was released a few weeks before Mother's Day and quickly became a Top 10 country hit, his first one in a decade, and a Top 40 pop hit, his first one in 14 years. The song was re-released 3 more times in 1977, 1983 and 1984 but with minor success each time.
Jimmy Dean: A Business Man
In 1969, he founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage brand — originally called "Pure Pork Sausage" — with his brother Don. Despite ups and downs (some revolving around his problems with his partner-brother Don Dean), the Jimmy Dean Sausage company did well, in part due to Dean's own extemporized, humor-themed commercials.
Its success led to its acquisition in 1984 by Consolidated Foods, later renamed the Sara Lee Corporation. Dean remained involved in running the company but the new corporate parent eventually began phasing him out of any management duties, a period that took a toll on his health. In January 2004, Dean said that the Sara Lee company had dropped him as the spokesman for the sausage brand.
Life in Virginia, autobiography, retirement
As a Virginia resident since 1990, he was inducted into the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore appointed Dean to the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries, which oversees the state's wildlife efforts and regulates the boating laws.
In the fall of 2004, he released his blunt, straight-talking autobiography, 30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham. Today, Dean lives in semiretirement with second wife Donna Meade Dean, a singer, songwriter and recording artist he married in 1991 who helped him write his book. The couple lives on private property at historic Chaffin's Bluff overlooking the James River on the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia.
Discography
Singles
| Year | Single | U.S. Country Singles | U.S. Pop Singles | U.S. AC Singles | Album |
| 1953 | "Bummin' Around" | #5 | - | - | Bummin' Around |
| 1961 | "Big Bad John" | #1 | #1 | #1 | Big Bad John and Other Fabulous Songs and Tales |
| 1962 | "Dear Ivan" | #9 | #24 | #6 | Greatest Hits |
| 1962 | "Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight" | - | #73 | - | The Best of Jimmy Dean |
| 1962 | "Little Black Book" | #10 | #29 | - | Portrait of Jimmy Dean |
| 1962 | "PT 109" | #3 | #8 | #2 | Portrait of Jimmy Dean |
| 1962 | "To a Sleeping Beauty" | #15 | #26 | #6 | Big Bad John and Other Fabulous Songs and Tales |
| 1962 | "The Cajun Queen" | #16 | #22 | #4 | Jimmy Dean's Greatest Hits |
| 1965 | "The First Thing Every Morning (And The Last Thing Every Night)" | #1 | #91 | - | The First Thing Every Morning |
| 1965 | "Harvest of Sunshine" | #35 | - | - | The First Thing Every Morning |
| 1966 | "Stand Beside Me" | #10 | - | - | Jimmy Dean is Here! |
| 1967 | "Sweet Misery" | #16 | - | - | Jimmy Dean Show |
| 1968 | "Born to Be By Your Side" | #52 | - | - | A Thing Called Love |
| 1968 | "A Thing Called Love" | #21 | - | - | A Thing Called Love |
| 1969 | "A Rose is a Rose is a Rose" | #52 | - | - | A Thing Called Love |
| 1971 | "Everybody Knows" | #54 | - | - | Everybody Knows |
| 1971 | "Slowly" (with Dottie West) | #29 | - | - | Country Boy and Country Girl |
| 1972 | "The One You Say Good Morning To" | #38 | - | - | Everybody Knows |
| 1976 | "I.O.U." | #9 | #35 | - | I.O.U. |
| 1976 | "To a Sleeping Beauty" | #85 | - | - | I.O.U. |
| 1983 | "I.O.U." | #77 | - | - | I.O.U. |
Selected Albums
| Year | Album |
| 1957 | Hour of Prayer |
| 1957 | Television Favorites |
| 1960 | Hymns by Jimmy Dean |
| 1961 | Big Bad John and Other Fabulous Songs and Tales |
| 1961 | Favorites of Jimmy Dean |
| 1962 | Portrait of Jimmy Dean |
| 1963 | Everybody's Favorite |
| 1964 | Jimmy Dean Sings His Television Favorites |
| 1965 | Bummin' Around |
| 1965 | Christmas Card |
| 1965 | The First Thing Ev'ry Morning |
| 1966 | Big Ones |
| 1967 | Jimmy Dean Show |
| 1967 | Mr. Country Music |
| 1968 | A Thing Called Love |
| 1969 | The Speaker of the House |
| 1970 | Country Boy and Country Girl (with Dottie West) |
| 1971 | Everybody Knows |
| 1976 | I.O.U. |
| 1981 | Country Music Show 1954-55 |
| 1995 | Jimmy Dean's Christmas Card |
| 1998 | Inspirational Songs |
External links
- Jimmy Dean's personal website
- Interview with Jimmy Dean
- Why Jimmy Dean started making sausage, from FreeEnterpriseLand.com
- Jimmy Dean at IMDb