Jimmy Reed Junior just died 10 months ago. What a sweet voice. Great background group. How come Mercury didn't release at least the traditional contract's second 45 on him? He was so good, I'd have guessed he'd have had a long, successful career. Certainly, he must have recorded some other songs. Great mid-'60s Chicago Sound to a tee! Written by Terry Callier, Produced by Al Smith, arranged by Phil Wright, all VJ and Chess people. I've been trying to find other cuts by him since I found this in a Chicago record shop bargain bin or thrift shop in 1967, and seen nothing more.

I know he spent a lot of years as a bass guitarist playing on his father's tour. But he should have had a big singing career of his own. Does anybody here know about any other releases he had, and more about his career story?

Edited yesterday at 18:321 day by Robbk
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Ruppli's Mercury discography includes two unissued songs by Jimmy Reed Jr. from the same session:

1-40318 I'm in love with you

1-40321 Only in time

In addition, Jimmy Reed Jr. filed copyrights on two other songs at the same time the two songs on the Mercury 45 had copyright filings. There were:

Heartaches And Troubles

Got Nowhere To Go (co-written by Al Smith; different from the Johnson / Collier song)

Perhaps someone with access to Ruppli's Mercury discography can check to see if there was another recording session.

The voice on the unreleased acetates sounds like him, and so does the guitar playing. I wonder if the background singers were The Dells. They worked with Al Smith at VJ for many years, and also with him at Chess (which is where they all were during the time Jimmy's Mercury record was made). Mercury likely used Chess' studio to record the Mercury record. The background singers don't sound as "full-sounding" on this as they do on some of The Dells' VJ/Vivid and Chess releases, but their harmony is good, and they sound like The Dells in a few places.

What a shame that Mercury didn't release the second 45 on Jimmy. I guess the fact that it didn't get any marketing push, which was their fault, doomed the record to almost no sales. To be honest, I don't remember hearing it on Chicago radio stations, or seeing it in the new/current section of local record shops. I'd doubt if it sold more than a couple hundred at full price, if that, and can't remember if I found it in a thrift shop or in a record shop bargain bin. It certainly was good enough to get a few test plays by local DJs.

Jimmy was good enough to have a good career as a Soul singer. I guess Jimmy was satisfied just playing in his father's band, touring, and when home (was it Detroit or Chicago?) also moonlighting playing bass guitar on a lot of local recording sessions. Personally, knowing that he worked on a fair amount of sessions in Chicago around that time, my guess is that he resided there, rather than Detroit, where he grew up.

His style on "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere" is great, and right up my alley (one of the best of the pure mid-' 60s Chicago Sound). It's certainly very memorable.

Edited yesterday at 18:341 day by Robbk

17 hours ago, jukeboxgeorge said:

In addition, Jimmy Reed Jr. filed copyrights on two other songs at the same time the two songs on the Mercury 45 had copyright filings. There were:

Heartaches And Troubles

Got Nowhere To Go (co-written by Al Smith; different from the Johnson / Collier song)

Must be these two, which were included on his fathers' "The New Jimmy Reed Album" from 1967:

As Robb & Sebastian have said, Jimmie Jr was an integral part of his dad's blues band & Snr was signed to ABC Bluesway. Jr was cutting tracks behind his dad for ABC in 1967.

Jimmy Snr had 2 albums out on ABC Bluesway (& 2 x 45 + a 45 on EXODUS) and Jimmie Jr featured heavily on all these tracks (as one of his dad's backing musicians). The 2nd ABC album was SOULIN (however just about all the tracks are just Jimmy's usual brand of blues, no real SOUL on show at all) ... ...

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by Roburt

20 hours ago, jukeboxgeorge said:

Ruppli's Mercury discography includes two unissued songs by Jimmy Reed Jr. from the same session:

1-40318 I'm in love with you

1-40321 Only in time

I noticed that two acetates were sold in January 2020 on ebay containing crude demo versions of these four songs:

https://gripsweat.com/item/383351099875/unknown-i-am-in-love-with-you-on-acetate-soul-demo-45-vg-hear

https://gripsweat.com/item/362869417702/unknown-i-aint-going-nowhere-on-acetate-soul-demo-45-vg-hear

I have uploaded the demo versions to YouTube for posterity's sake:

It is also interesting to note that Leroy Barbour cut a version of "I Ain't Going Nowhere" in 1975 on the Frontiersman label, entirely omitting details of the original songwriters. Produced by Phillip Mitchell.

Just noticed that Leroy Barbour even copyrighted the song as his own!

The original copyright info (and label info) miscredits Terrence "Terry" Callier as Terrance Collier.

Spelling Terry Callier's name correctly has seemed a hard task for many in the US ...

in the UK, we were a little better ...

To further complicate matters over this song ... BMI / ASCAP have just these 2 entries ...

there's lots more of course, but for other songs with the same title ... none registered to Johnson / Callier.

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by Roburt

Barbour's version is clearly the same exact song as Jimmy's. So Callier should be listed as the writer.