Who was/is Jimmy Duncan ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
1957 was Jimmy Duncan’s year. That July, Bobby Helms waxed his luscious ballad My Special Angel, and that autumn it was a massive pop hit on Decca. Jimmy had his own self-penned Decca single out then, Run Little Joey (Joey’s Lament), and if it didn’t make the same commercial waves (Gordon Terry cut a competing version for Cadence), it did sport an infectious Latin beat and a striking guitar solo. The B-side You Wanted Fun, I Wanted Love was a charmer in its own right.
Born June 25, 1927 in Houston, Duncan reportedly graduated from the University of Houston. He was blessed with a mellifluous set of baritone pipes tailor-made for pop success and had a couple of 1956 singles on the Houston-based Cue label. The second one, I’m On The Outside (Lookin’ In), was picked up nationally by King Records. Decca moved Duncan to Brunswick for his ’58 encore, coupling I Close The Door and Keep Me Satisfied, but by then Jimmy had other priorities.
Duncan teamed with Houston deejay Larry Kane in 1958 to produce new acts for Don Robey’s Back Beat label. None of their discoveries had much chart luck, though soul singer Joe Hinton scored big later on with other producers (Duncan’s own bouncy Back Beat 45 Doll House went nowhere in ’59). After a 1961 single for Roulette, Eighth Wonder Of The World, Duncan abandoned his recording career. He lived in Nashville for six years before returning to Houston in 1967. Jimmy established his own Mercury-affiliated Soundville label and a studio of the same name there at the dawn of the ‘70s. He died November 9, 2011 in Houston.
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