Jimmy C. Newman
Encyclopedia
Jimmy Yves Newman better known as Jimmy C. Newman (the C stands for Cajun), is an American
singer and a long time star
of the Grand Ole Opry
.
. As a child, he listened more to Gene Autry
than to the Cajun music
of the area, but had a number of Cajun songs in his repertoire when, as a teenager, he joined Chuck Guillory’s Rhythm Boys. He recorded
a few unsuccessful sides for J.D. Miller’s Future
label
in the 1940s, but Miller persuaded Fred Rose
in Nashville, Tennessee
to give the young singer an opportunity. In 1953, he was signed to Dot Records
and the following year recorded "Cry, Cry Darling", which reached No. 4 on the country
chart
.
His recording success led the Louisiana Hayride
in Shreveport, Louisiana
, to hire him as a regular performer. His next four records all reached Top 10 status, and in 1956 he was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. That following year he released his biggest hit
, "A Fallen Star", which spent two weeks at No. 2 and also entered the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100
pop
chart.
As an established artist, he began to integrate his Cajun influences into his music and recorded "Alligator Man", which was a top 25 record and continues to be his theme song at the Opry. In 1963, he released another top 10 hit, "The D.J. Cried". His final hits came in 1965 and 1966 with "Artificial Rose" and "Back Pocket Money". When his commercial popularity declined he returned to Cajun music, forming his Cajun Country band and taking the high energy fiddle
- and accordion
-based music of his native Louisiana to fans around the world. In 1976, his recording of the Cajun French
song, "Lâche pas la patate" ("The Potato Song") earned gold record
status in Canada. In 1991, Newman and Cajun Country earned a Grammy nomination for their album, Alligator Man.
In 2000, he was inducted into the North American Country Music Association’s International Hall of Fame and in 2004 was inducted into the Cajun Hall of Fame. He is also honored in the Cajun Music Hall of Fame in Lafayette, Louisiana, and in 2009 he was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
.
Newman and his wife made their home on their 670 acres (2.7 km²) ranch outside of Nashville in Murfeesboro. He continues to tour and appears regularly at the Grand Ole Opry. In 2006, he joined a select group of entertainers who have marked 50 years of Opry membership.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer and a long time star
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
of the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
.
Biography
Newman was born near Big Mamou, LouisianaLouisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. As a child, he listened more to Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
than to the Cajun music
Cajun music
Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin...
of the area, but had a number of Cajun songs in his repertoire when, as a teenager, he joined Chuck Guillory’s Rhythm Boys. He recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
a few unsuccessful sides for J.D. Miller’s Future
Future Records
Future Records is an independent record label, based in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was started in 2006 by Hreinn Elíasson, Sigurmon Hartmann Sigurðsson and Ólafur Halldór Ólafsson - all artists themselves.-Artists:* Weapons* Cosmic Call* The Defaults...
label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
in the 1940s, but Miller persuaded Fred Rose
Fred Rose (musician)
Fred Rose was an American Hall of Fame songwriter and music publishing executive.-Biography:Born in Evansville, Indiana, Fred Rose started playing piano and singing as a small boy. In his teens, he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he worked in bars busking for tips, and finally vaudeville...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
to give the young singer an opportunity. In 1953, he was signed to Dot Records
Dot Records
Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen...
and the following year recorded "Cry, Cry Darling", which reached No. 4 on the country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
.
His recording success led the Louisiana Hayride
Louisiana Hayride
Louisiana Hayride was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the greatest names in American music...
in Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
, to hire him as a regular performer. His next four records all reached Top 10 status, and in 1956 he was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. That following year he released his biggest hit
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
, "A Fallen Star", which spent two weeks at No. 2 and also entered the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
chart.
As an established artist, he began to integrate his Cajun influences into his music and recorded "Alligator Man", which was a top 25 record and continues to be his theme song at the Opry. In 1963, he released another top 10 hit, "The D.J. Cried". His final hits came in 1965 and 1966 with "Artificial Rose" and "Back Pocket Money". When his commercial popularity declined he returned to Cajun music, forming his Cajun Country band and taking the high energy fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
- and accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
-based music of his native Louisiana to fans around the world. In 1976, his recording of the Cajun French
Cajun French
Cajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in Louisiana, specifically in the southern and southwestern parishes....
song, "Lâche pas la patate" ("The Potato Song") earned gold record
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
status in Canada. In 1991, Newman and Cajun Country earned a Grammy nomination for their album, Alligator Man.
In 2000, he was inducted into the North American Country Music Association’s International Hall of Fame and in 2004 was inducted into the Cajun Hall of Fame. He is also honored in the Cajun Music Hall of Fame in Lafayette, Louisiana, and in 2009 he was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame is an IRS certified 501 non-profit organization based in the state capitol of Baton Rouge, La., that seeks to preserve Louisiana's rich music culture and heritage and to further educate its citizens and people worldwide about the state’s unique role contributing...
.
Newman and his wife made their home on their 670 acres (2.7 km²) ranch outside of Nashville in Murfeesboro. He continues to tour and appears regularly at the Grand Ole Opry. In 2006, he joined a select group of entertainers who have marked 50 years of Opry membership.
Albums
| Year | Album | US Country | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | This Is Jimmy Newman | — | MGM |
| 1962 | Jimmy Newman | — | Decca |
| 1963 | Folk Songs of the Bayou Country | — | |
| 1966 | Artificial Rose | 10 | |
| Sings Country Songs | — | ||
| 1967 | The World of Country Music | — | |
| 1968 | The Jimmy Newman Way | — | |
| Born to Love You | 42 | ||
| 1969 | The Jimmy Newman Style | — | |
| 1970 | Country Time | — | |
| 1974 | Sings Cajun | — | La Louisiane |
| 1976 | Progressive Country | — | Plantation |
| Greatest Hits | — | ||
| 1978 | Cajun Cowboy | — | |
| 1979 | Happy Cajun | — | |
| 1981 | Cajun Country | — | Delta |
Singles
| Year | Single | US Country Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales... |
Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | "Cry, Cry, Darling" | 4 | singles only |
| "Night Time Is Cry Time" | — | ||
| "Your True and Faithful One" | — | ||
| 1955 | "Daydreamin'" | 7 | |
| "Blue Darlin'" | 7 | ||
| 1956 | "God Was So Good" | 9 | |
| "Seasons of My Heart" | 9 | ||
| "Come Back to Me" | 13 | ||
| "Honky Tonk Tears" | — | ||
| 1957 | "I've Got You On My Mind" | — | |
| "A Fallen Star"A | 2 | ||
| "Need Me" | — | ||
| 1958 | "Step Aside Shallow Water Let the Deep Sea Roll" | — | |
| "Bop-a-Hula" | — | ||
| "You're Makin' a Fool Out of Me" | 7 | This Is Jimmy Newman | |
| 1959 | "So Soon" | 19 | |
| "Lonely Girl" | 30 | ||
| "Grin and Bear It" | 9 | singles only | |
| "Walkin' Down the Road" | 29 | ||
| 1960 | "I Miss You Already" | 21 | |
| "A Lovely Work of Art" | 6 | ||
| "Wanting You with Me Tonight" | 11 | ||
| 1961 | "Everybody's Dying for Love" | 14 | Jimmy Newman |
| "Big Mamou" | — | ||
| 1962 | "Alligator Man" | 22 | |
| "Of All the Things (You Left)" | — | singles only | |
| "After Dark Affair" | — | ||
| 1963 | "Bayou Talk" | 12 | |
| "Everything" | — | ||
| 1964 | "D.J. for a Day" | 9 | |
| "Angel on Leave" | 34 | ||
| "Summer Skies and Golden Sands" | 34 | ||
| "You're Still On My Mind" | — | ||
| 1965 | "City of the Angels" | 37 | Artificial Rose |
| "Back in Circulation" | 13 | ||
| "Artificial Rose" | 8 | ||
| 1966 | "Back Pocket Money" | 10 | Sings Country Songs |
| "Bring Your Heart Home" | 25 | ||
| 1967 | "Dropping Out of Sight" | 32 | The World of Country Music |
| "Louisiana Saturday Night" | 24 | The Jimmy Newman Way | |
| "Blue Lonely Winter" | 11 | ||
| 1968 | "Sunshine and Bluebirds" | 47 | Born to Love You |
| "Born to Love You"B | 20 | ||
| 1969 | "Future Farmers of America" | — | single only |
| "Boo Dan" | 31 | The Jimmy Newman Style | |
| "Three" | — | ||
| 1970 | "Foolishly" | — | Country Time |
| "Washington, DC" | — | ||
| "I'm Holding Your Memory (But He's Holding You)" | 65 | singles only | |
| 1971 | "Is It Really Over" | — | |
| 1972 | "Secret Love" | — | |
| "Not as a Sweetheart (Just as a Friend)" | — | ||
| "Wild Rose" | — | ||
| 1973 | "Kind of Love I Can't Forget" | — | |
| "Just Once More" | — | ||
| 1974 | "Potato Songs" | — | Sings Cajun |
| "Go Go Song" | — | single only | |
| 1978 | "Happy Cajun" | — | Happy Cajun |
| 1979 | "Sugar Bee" | — | |
| "Sweet Suzannah" | — | ||
| 1980 | "Cotton Eyed Joe" | — | single only |
| 1981 | "Louisiana" | — | Cajun Country |
| 1982 | "All My Cloudy Days Are Gone" | — | singles only |
| 1983 | "Wondering" | — | |
| 1984 | "Passe par tout" | — | |
| 1987 | "Laissez les bons temps rouler" | — |
- A"A Fallen Star" peaked at #23 on the BillboardBillboard (magazine)Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot 100Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. - B"Born to Love You" peaked at #35 on the RPMRPM (magazine)RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...
Country Tracks chart in Canada.