Who was/is Jimmy Lee ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Jimmy Lee & Wayne Walker
JIMMY LEE and WAYNE WALKER made only one record together but it's a rockabilly hallmark. To call it a classic is selling it short. It could even be the first real rock 'n' roll record on CHESS, long after Rocket 88 of course, but pre-dating Maybellene by several months.
Jimmy Lee, real name James Walton Fautheree, was born on April 11, 1934 in Smackover, Arkansas. His father, an itinerant oilworker, preferred blues to hillbilly and encouraged an affection for black music which Jimmy heard on Nashville's WLAC and on the sidewalks of Deep Elem in Dallas where the family settled in 1946. At fifteen, Lee was a regular on Dallas's 'Big D Jamboree' where he adopted the name 'Jimmy Lee.'
In 1949, Jimmy met Country Johnny Mathis, an older singer with a record on Jesse Erickson's TALENT label. They teamed up for appearances on Shreveport's 'Louisiana Hayride' but generally recorded separately apart from a duet for CAPITOL in 1952. Lee recorded solo sides for the same label but, when CAPITOL dropped him from the roster, he looked up Mathis and the pair struck out for Nashville where Acuff-Rose agreed to publish If You Don't Somebody Else Will. In 1954, they recorded the song for Jay Miller's FEATURE label and, a few weeks later, for CHESS whose superior version reached #6 on 'Billboard's' C&W chart.
Success had an adverse influence on Mathis who drank heavily and sold shares in his songs to almost anyone. Jimmy Lee found another partner in Wayne Walker.
Wayne Paul Walker was born in Quapaw, Oklahoma on December 13, 1925. He grew up in Texas, served in the coastguard during World War II and sold fire escapes in Shreveport after the war. References to working in a Shreveport foundry as a bookkeeper are probably talking about the same job. Walker became attracted to country music while listening to the 'Louisiana Hayride' and with encouragement from Tillman Franks and Webb Pierce he was soon placing his songs with local artists. Walker and Pierce wrote How Do You Think I Feel which eventually fetched up on Elvis Presley's second album.
Walker's first record, a hillbilly song with the Hayride houseband, emerged on CHESS in 1954. The second, cut as early as January 1955, was a rockabilly revelation. Love Me, written by Walker but credited to Stan Lewis, is notable for three string-snapping lead breaks from Jimmy Lee who tussles with Sonny Trammell's unorthodox steel guitar on a record of surging rhythmic power – so surging the microphones can't cope without distortion. Tillman Franks is in perfect step on bass.
Lee and Walker's partnership lasted less than four months. When it dissolved, Lee joined his younger brother, Lynn, and recorded for DECCA as Jimmy and Johnny whose story is lovingly annotated by Andrew Brown in the booklet to BEAR FAMILY's collection, If You Don't Somebody Else Will (BCD 15771). Lee made further records with Country Johnny Mathis (D, VIN, REPUBLIC) and on his own. As Jimmy Lee or Jimmy Fautheree, he recorded for VIN, DIXIE, TOWNE HOUSE, LODEMA and PAULA. Baby It's Love c/w Teenage Wedding as by Johnny Angel (VIN 1004) is probably of most interest to rock 'n' roll fans. Lee still lives in Dallas and now sings gospel songs.
Wayne Walker (who co-wrote Teenage Wedding) followed Webb Pierce to Nashville and signed up with Cedarwood Publishing. A multiple BMI award-winner, his most famous songs include Are You Sincere (Andy Williams), Little Boy Sad (Johnny Burnette), Sweet Love On My Mind (Jimmy and Johnny), I've Got A New Heartache (Ray Smith), The Cajun Queen (Jimmy Dean) and a host of others for Carl Smith, Kitty Wells, Lefty Frizzell, Webb Pierce and Eddy Arnold. According to William Savage's 'Singing Cowboys And All That Jazz,' Walker produced a song every three days, writing over 400 by 1970. BMI's profile referred to 400 recordings out of more than 1000 songs. Either way, it's a lot.
Walker continued making records too; All I Can Do Is Cry (ABC-PARAMOUNT), Bo-Bo Ska Diddle Daddle (COLUMBIA) and You've Got Me (BRUNSWICK) have found their way on to other rockabilly compilations. He also recorded for EVEREST, CORAL, RIC and STARDAY (but, according to Andrew Brown, the Wayne Walker on the TALENT/STAR TALENT label is a different artist). Walker died of cancer on January 2, 1979.
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