Jimmie Spheeris

Jimmie Spheeris, the singer and songwriter whose work carried a distinctly poetic sensibility, entered the world on November 5, 1949. Columbia Records released his first album, Isle of View, in 1971, quickly surrounding him with an intense cult audience whose numbers swelled further when The Original Tap-Dancing Kid arrived two years later. Joining forces with producer Henry Lewy, he reappeared in 1975 on The Dragon Is Dancing, yet the arrival of The Ports of the Heart the following year left him without a label; aside from the lone 1980 single “Hold Tight,” nearly a decade elapsed before any new material surfaced. He finally reentered the studio in 1984 to record a long-awaited comeback album, only to be struck and killed by a drunk driver on the morning of July 4, just hours after completing the sessions. Later that year the finished work received a private release under the plain title Spheeris.