"Reed crammed in plenty of sessions during his great decade. Though no-one could claim that every track was a masterpiece, the standard was remarkably high. Jimmy Reed was a giant of the Blues" - John Collis
Jimmy Reed had a distinctively laid-back singing style. His recordings are instantly recognizable by the spare guitar, harmonica and drums that let Jimmy's voice do all the work. Jimmy came from a large sharecropping family and spent his early years in Dunleith, Mississippi. Like many young boys, Jimmy sang in his church choir and learned to play guitar. In 1943 he left the south to find work in Chicago he was drafted into the Navy in 1944 and discharged the next year. After the war, Jimmy returned to Chicago where he tried his luck as a full time musician. He signed with a new label, Vee-Jay Records, in 1953, and cracked the R&B charts in 1955 with "You Don't Have to Go." Many more followed, as Reed scored a remarkable 18 Top Twenty R&B hits on Vee-Jay between 1955 and 1961. The highest-charting of these was his classic "Bright Lights, Big City," which rose to #3 in September 1961. At the same time, he entered the pop charts on a dozen occasions, his most notable success being "Baby What You Want Me to Do" which Elvis Presley managed to mangle on his 1969 Comeback Special.
Although her name seems to be lost to history, Jimmy's wife (known only as Mama Reed) wrote many of his songs and even sat behind him in the studio reciting the lyrics when he was too drunk to remember them. Her voice is audible on most of Jimmy's recordings. Jimmy's songs were among the first "'crossover" hits, appealing to whites as well as blacks. Many of the songs had more in common with R&B than with traditional Blues.
Reed was know to be unreliable. His epilepsy was combined with alcoholism which often left him too drunk to perform. Jimmy was knowm to lie down in the middle of his performances when he became too dizzy to sit up. The problem reached its peak in the mid-60s when Jimmy was touring Europe. Sadly, Jimmy only seemed to gain control over
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