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The life of James Marcus
Smith began on November 6th. 1938 at Herman
Hospital in Houston, Texas.
As a young
boy, Jim, like many others was influenced
by black negro musicians and their music.
In spite of the racism that ruled heavily
in the Southern States, he listened to
all the Baptist Gospel singers around his
area on Sundays and sang along with them.
In
those days nearly everybody in the South
used to sing in Church. As a three year
old his Uncle Dan took him to a recording
booth at the nearby fairground and recorded
him singing his first ever recorded song
called "Roll Out The Barrels".
Jim met and
worked with Tommy Sands and Elvis Presley,
George Jones, Tennessee Ernie Ford, The
Collins Kids and many others while growing
up in Houston at places like The Hitching
Post, The Egals Hall, The South Maine
Olde Spanish Trail for the leading D.J.
at the time named Cliffie Stone & Biff
Collie.
Still he
had to wait for fame as he had promised
his parents that he would finish High School
before pursuing fame and fortune. He had
already been attending San Marcos Military
Academy, in San Marcos, Texas since he
was 9 years old and in the Summer for three
months he studied at the Culver Naval Academy
in South Bend, Indiana. He graduated in
1957 from Western Military in Alton, Illinois.
After this he made his way to Hollywood.
On arriving
in Hollywood he contacted his old friend
Tommy Sands who suggested he go and see
the local leading vocal coach Lillian
Goodman who trained all the Hollywood
Greats. She introduced P.J. to songwriting
Oscar winner Ray Gilbert. Ray took Jim
to the big agents Gaby Lutz, Heller and
Lobe who had such names as Liberace,
Kay Star, Frankie Lane and many other
famous names on their books. Jim was
signed up and was named "Jett Powers" as
they thought that "Jim Smith" was too
ordinary. Jim then met up with a girl
named Sharon Sheeley who had written
a big hit for Ricky Nelson called "Poor
Little Fool" and at the time
was going with Eddie Cochran. they all
became the closest of friends. Jett by
now was going with Sharon's friend Dotty
Harmony and began writing with Sharon,
Dotty, Jackie De Shannon, Dick Glasser,
Baker Knight, The Burnett Brothers, Johnny
and Dorcy and many others around at the
time.
At the same time Jim
was introduced to Kim Fowley who used
him in his new group The Hollywood Argyles
who scored a big hit with the 1960 "Alley Oop".
Sharon later took him to Liberty Records
where they signed him to a songwriting
and singing contract after Sharon changed
his name yet again to P.J.Proby after
a boy she had dated before going with
Eddie Cochran when in Junior High School.
On that day a first step to world wide
fame was taken.
In 1961 Liberty released
the first P.J.Proby single "Try To Forget Her" and "There Stands
The One" produced by Dick Glasser with
vocal backing by the Johnny Mann singers.
Glen Campbell on guitar, Leon Russell on
keyboards, David Gates on bass, Hal Blane
on drums plus a string section. Proby kept
busy in the studios as a session singer
for such artists as BB King, Johnny Cash,
Little Richard and Elvis Presley. But his
burning desire was still to have a successful
career as a solo singer
In 1962, Sharon Sheeley
and Jackie de Shannon composed a number
and gave it to Proby titled "The Other Side of Town" which
was coupled with "Watch Me Walk Away" composed
by their friend and producer Dick Glasser
(Dickie to Sharon and Jackie). The production
was very good but the company did not do
any promotion work on it for Proby. This
was a pattern to be repeated until P.J.
started his recording career in England.
It was Sharon and Jackie who introduced
Proby to the talented and charismatic producer
Jack Good.
In
late 1963 Jack Good traveled back to
England at the request of Brian Epstein
to produce the first T.V. special to
be screened worldwide of the fast rising
group "The
Beatles". The program was to be called "Around
The Beatles", with a few newcomers at the
time named Cilla Black, Long John Baldry
(more famous now for discovering Elton
John and Rod Stewart) and a little black
girl named Millie. Jack took with him some
demo tapes of P.J. which impressed Epstein
and the "Boys", enough to have Jack send
for him in Hollywood. Through the Satellite
Telstar the show was broadcast all over
the world giving millions of people the
chance to get to know P.J.Proby.
That
breakthrough lead to Proby's arrangement
of the old 1939 Dick Hayames ballad "Hold Me" which
P.J. turned into an up tempo rocker reaching
the number three spot in the British charts.
This success was followed by yet another
transformed oldie from the same period
titled "Together" also in the same style
which reached number eight in the charts,
Both singles as did all of Proby releases
charted high in the American Billboard
Charts. These first singles were released
in Europe on the Decca Label, However P.J.
was still under contract to Liberty Records
USA, who won a successful court action
against Decca in their bid to get Proby
back.
In 1964 Liberty Records
issued the first Proby L.P. in Britain
simply titled "I
am P.J.Proby" containing all the music
that P.J. and Charles Blackwell had put
together for Decca. Once again Liberty
Records gave the single nor the album any
P.R. work nor big marketing campaign. P.J.
was beginning to realise that if he was
to make things happen, it was going to
all be down to him and himself alone would
have to sell himself, by himself and so
he did.
P.J.Proby in Town" respectively arranged
and produced by Johnny Spence, Johnny Scott
and Ron Richards with songs by Les Read
and Barry Mason gave Proby more than enough
opportunity to present his wide range of
abilities. Highlighted on this album were
such numbers as "I Will" (written by Dick
Glasser for his sister), "My Prayer", "To
Make A Big Man Cry", "What Kind Of Fool
Am I" and P.J.'s favourite from his favourite
musical "Carousel" "If I Loved You".
Jim has always yearned to play Billy Bigelow
since watching one of his idols Gordon
Mc Cray in the Part.
P.J. was known for his exhausting visional
stage performances. It was one of these
performances on January 29th. 1965 at Fairfield
hall, Croydon in London that Proby who
was the first male ever to wear his hair
in a Pony Tail in the last century at least,
burst out of his skin tight velvet bellbottoms
doing his act based on the coloured shows
he had been used to attending in the rougher
areas of Downtown L.A..
He explained to the frantic press that
the ripped clothing was an accident due
to the weak velvet material, but when two
days later the same thing again happened,
the audiences were wild with excitement,
as they had never witnessed such body movement
onstage nor such provocative mood and they
loved him. However the British system that
govern the music scene were less enthusiastic.
Jim was banned from all theatres in Great
Britain and not allowed to perform his
recordings on the B.B.C. or A.T.V. television
stations.
By
February 24th., Proby was unable to perform
almost anywhere although he was headline
news in every newspaper and paparazzi..
As a counter attack to this total boycott
on P.J., Liberty released a single on
February 27th. The recording was "I Apologise".
This was with no promotion or personal
appearances permitted yet it still reached
number 11 in the charts with no Radio or
Television Promotion, Proby continued his
recordings despite the door being slammed
on him by the industry. In November 1965,
he once again proved to his loyal fans
that the "magic" was never to leave him.
His recording of "Maria" from "West Side
Story" was regarded along with "Somewhere" as
two of the best and most exciting versions
ever and are still the two of the most
requested songs.
From the 70's onwards
Jim appeared in concert throughout the
world moving also into theatre appearances
in many highly successful productions
and musicals. Jack Good cast P.J. as
Cassio" in the Rock
Musical "Othello" (an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Othello").
Other successful stagings followed in particular
the lead role in the musical "Elvis" that
played London's West End in 1977 for which
he accepted on behalf of the play the Evening
Standard Award for best play of the year.
P.J. went on to repeat
his same role of Elvis once again in
1996 along with the Roy Orbison story "Only The Lonely" and
life story of Jack Good "Good Rockin Tonight".
P.J. then got a call from some old friends,
Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey asking
him to join them on a World Tour of the
production Pete wrote and filmed around
the same time he put together "Tommy",
called "Quadraphenia" in which they wanted
P.J. to play "The Godfather". After a
huge success with "The Who" and the Quadraphenia
Tour", P.J. recorded a CD for EMI produced
by another friend Marc Almond which Jim
regarded as some of the best work he has
ever done with contemporary music. EMI
refused to market or promote this recording
with all of this wonderful music on it
and today "Legend" as it was titled still
sits being hidden from the public and his
fans somewhere in the halls of EMI.
To say P.J.Proby is
talented, is an understatement. He's
a giant and as the album states a "Legend",
who has made an indelible impression upon
the music and the entertainment industry.
There is no dispute that P.J.Proby is one
of the most exciting and talented performers
of our time.
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