Jimmie Rodgers – born James Frederick Rodgers in Camas, Washington on September 18, 1933 – was a best-selling country and pop artist in the 1950s and 1960s. His is not to be confused with the classic country singer Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933) or blues musician Jimmy Rogers (1924-1997). Rodgers learned to play the piano at the age of five before he switched to guitar. During the Korean War, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Stationed in Nashville, Tennessee between 1954 and 1956, he was inspired by the city’s musical heritage and decided to devote himself to a music career. His first massive hit was 1957’s “Honeycomb”, a cover of the song originally performed by George Shaw in 1954. Some of his other hits included “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” (Number 7) the same year, “Oh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again” (Number 7) , “Secretly” (Number 3), and “Are You Really Mine?" (Number 10), "Bimbombey" (Number 11) in 1958 and "Ring-a-ling-a-lario" (Number 32) and "Tucumcari" (Number 3) in 1959. His hits spilled into the 1960s in the U.S. and overseas with "English Country Garden" (Number 5 in the UK in 1961), "It's Over" (Number 37/1966) and “Child of Clay” (Number 31/1967). On December 1, 1967, Rodgers suffered severe head trauma during a traffic stop in Los Angeles, which he eventually would partially recover from. While his musical output slowed down significantly, his older songs were used in television advertisements. He would occasionally perform but his last album, Yesterday – Today, was released in 1978. Rodgers published his autobiography, Dancing on the Moon, in 2011. Jimmie Rodgers died on January 18, 2021 at the age of 87.
