Jimmy Radcliffe (November 18, 1936 – July 27, 1973) was an American soul singer, composer, arranger, conductor and record producer.
James Radcliffe Was born in New York City. There he attended school and the All Souls Episcopal Church, as an alter boy and choir member. As a teen he worked for a year at the Jewelry Sales Corp. on 44th Street from September 1952. Jim enlisted in the Air Force in 1954, immediately signing with the entertainment corp. He sang lead with a five man group called The Fascinators, and sang solo accompanying himself on guitar. In 1957, he made his television debut on the armed forces network in Germany, the same network on which Elvis Presley would appear a year later.
Upon leaving the service in 1958, he put together an act together with some of the other street corner crooners of his teen years playing local clubs and nighthalls. By 1959 he had gained a reputation for his stage performances and had recorded a couple of demos of his own material, acquiring some radio play. This led to his signing with Aaron Schroeder, who had just founded Musicor Records with then United Artist President, Art Talmedge..Jimsfirst record release was Twist Calypso b/w Don't Look My Way in 1962, Radcliffe co-wrote both sides with Jim Sterns, a long-running collaborator. It was followed by "(There Goes) the Forgotten Man" (1962), which Gene McDaniels later cut, and "Through a Long and Sleepless Night" (1963). The first three singles showed promise but did little. Radcliffe's original rendition of Hal David and Burt Bacharach's "Long After Tonight Is All Over" (1964) sold better and got Radcliffe recognized, especially in the United Kingdom where it charted on Stateside Records.
The Musicor deal soured, and Radcliffe's next single, the original "My Ship Is Comin' In," appeared on Aurora Records and again got more run in the U.K. than the U.S.A. Walter Jackson redid it, but the Walker Brothers enjoyed the most successful version, taking the Radcliffe/Joey Brooks' song to number three pop in 1965. Shout Records issued "Lucky Old Sun" b/w "So Deep," by Radcliffe in 1966; but nothing else surfaced until 1968 when "Breakaway Parts 1 & 2," credited to the Steve Karman Big Band featuring Jimmy Radcliffe, kicked out on United Artists Records. A final single, "Funky Bottom Congregation" (1969), bore RCA's logo.
In 1966 The British Invasion was in full swing, which meant that most of the popular bands were writing their own songs that were published by their record companies sub-publishers. This forced a lot of songwriters to move into other areas such as television and film scores, those that couldn't adapt were quite often forced out of the business altogether. Jimmy moved into the field of advertising, both writing and performing jingles. By the time of his death, he had worked on over 200 TV and Radio commercials and was recognized as one of the top performers in the field.
The most famous was a Pontiac commercial featuring the line "Breakaway in a Pontiac" that ran from 1969. Multi-talented, he also sang backup on many sessions. 1969 saw Jimmy signing with RCA in both capacity as an artist and producer and releasing his final record under his own name Funky Bottom Congragtion that year. The tract would also supply the title track for an RCA compilation album that featured among other things Johnny Nash's version of "Deep In The Heart Of Harlem" from 1965. This was also the year Jim started working with a newly signed RCA artist, Carolyn Franklin. The third Franklin sister to get a recording contract, Carolyn's first two RCA albums were produced by Jim. Early 1972 Jimmy bagan work on what was to be his first album, mixing both his songs and covers of contemporary soul and pop tunes.
At this time Jimmy had decided to control his weight. For most of his life he was heavy set. He was also suffering from high blood pressure due to dietary intake.. Jim was hospitalized with high blood pressure, which was causing a major strain on his kidneys. This strain eventual led to the removal of one of his kidneys and his being put on dialysis once a day. In the following months he suffered a minor stroke and lost the sight in his left eye. Over the ensuing months, the amount of time spent on dialysis increased from once a day for an hour to three and four times.
Although it had become more and more difficult to work Jimmy took on another project in early 1973 - Carolyn Franklin's third album, titled after his Darling I'd Rather Be Lonely tune. From the onset Jim had problems with RCA over the amount of money he was spending on the production and he was eventually replaced by Wade Marcus. By this time Jim's health had deteriorated more, with his remaining kidney failing. This caused him to spend most of the day on dailysis while waiting for a transplant.. He managed to complete the A-side of the album before his condition took a turn for the worse.
He entered the veterans administrations Hospital in the Bronx on July 2, 1973. Twenty five days later on July 27, 1973 James Radcliffe died at the age of 36.
(Edited from Black Patch productions & AllMusic)