Biography
To most listeners of rock & roll who even register the name, Jimmy Clanton typically calls to mind his somewhat rigid yet sincere turn in the 1959 jukebox film Go Johnny Go, produced by Alan Freed. That movie alone would scarcely reveal how Clanton ranked among the era’s teen idols as one of the most earnest and intricate figures, clearly outdistancing Fabian, Bobby Rydell, and similar peers; in truth he stood apart as a committed R&B devotee blessed with a strong voice and an authentic grasp of New Orleans music. He further distinguished himself by penning many of his own recordings, something uncommon among white vocalists of the period.
Born in Raceland, LA, on September 2, 1938, Clanton entered adolescence just as R&B began attracting younger white listeners. By 1956, when he assembled his first group, the Dixie Cats, he was already copying the styles of Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley while also drawing from Johnny Ace. Contemporaries from those early days included a teenage John Fred, still more than a decade from “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses),” and Johnny Ramistella, later known as Johnny Rivers and still eight years from his breakthrough. Clanton soon teamed with rival bandleader and pianist Dick Holler—later the writer of “Abraham, Martin and John”—inside the Rockets, a unit strong enough to warrant a 1957 journey to New Orleans and an introduction to Cosimo Matassa, proprietor of the city’s sole recording studio.
Matassa responded favorably to Clanton’s relaxed appeal and interpretive skill, noting how the singer delivered R&B with genuine feeling and projected an engaging, friendly manner. The producer therefore placed both Clanton and Holler under his guidance, cut sides of each fronting the Rockets, and secured contracts for them with Mississippi-based Ace Records in September 1957.
Initially Clanton remained overshadowed by Ace’s star attraction, Huey “Piano” Smith, fresh from “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu” and poised to release “Don’t You Just Know It.” Over time, however, Clanton’s own “Just a Dream” began attracting regional airplay and sales that gradually spread nationwide. By 1958 the single had climbed to number four on the Billboard Pop chart and reached the top of the R&B list, instantly elevating him to one of Ace’s premier artists. Subsequent appearances on American Bandstand, dates beyond the South, a Hollywood Bowl engagement, and spots on Freed’s traveling revues culminated in his featured role in Go Johnny Go, where he performed “Ship on a Stormy Sea,” “My Love Is Strong,” and “It Takes a Long, Long Time” alongside Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Sandy Stewart, the Flamingos, the Cadillacs, Jo-Ann Campbell, Eddie Cochran, and Ritchie Valens.
His follow-up was a double-sided release pairing “Letter to an Angel”—a track whose mood and substance echoed Johnny Ace’s “Pledging My Love”—with “A Part of Me”; both sides charted modestly. Clanton next reached number 33 with “My Own True Love,” drawn from the main-title theme of Gone with the Wind and marking the first single he neither wrote nor co-wrote, usually in tandem with Matassa. Not until 1960 did he return to the Top Ten, this time with “Go Jimmy Go,” a Doc Pomus–Mort Shuman composition that peaked at number five. By then the teen-idol wave was cresting and Clanton fit the mold effortlessly, thanks to his looks and affable demeanor; his sound accordingly shifted from R&B toward a milder, pop-oriented white rock & roll style. Although he still contributed an occasional original, he relied more heavily on outside writers such as Pomus and Shuman or Neil Sedaka and Howie Greenfield.
Drafted in early 1961, Clanton served two years in the U.S. Army. Ace attempted to sustain his visibility by issuing a string of singles, among them his own “Don’t Look at Me” and Dr. John’s “Because I Do.” These early-sixties sides were robust rockers that signaled a partial return to his original New Orleans foundation after the string of pop ballads. Upon his discharge he scored his final major success with “Venus in Blue Jeans,” which climbed to number seven in mid-1962 and reaffirmed his standing as a central figure on the Mississippi label. One additional chart entry, “Darkest Street in Town,” closed out his hit-making period. He kept performing after Ace folded in the mid-sixties and later recorded for Phillips, Mala, Laurie, and Imperial, yet the British Invasion altered popular taste and reduced opportunities for regular work.
During the seventies Clanton worked as a disc jockey and mounted his own oldies revue; reports indicate he experienced a religious conversion in the eighties. In the nineties he shared oldies bills with former labelmate Frankie Ford, and such appearances persisted through the first decade of the new millennium.
Born in Raceland, LA, on September 2, 1938, Clanton entered adolescence just as R&B began attracting younger white listeners. By 1956, when he assembled his first group, the Dixie Cats, he was already copying the styles of Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley while also drawing from Johnny Ace. Contemporaries from those early days included a teenage John Fred, still more than a decade from “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses),” and Johnny Ramistella, later known as Johnny Rivers and still eight years from his breakthrough. Clanton soon teamed with rival bandleader and pianist Dick Holler—later the writer of “Abraham, Martin and John”—inside the Rockets, a unit strong enough to warrant a 1957 journey to New Orleans and an introduction to Cosimo Matassa, proprietor of the city’s sole recording studio.
Matassa responded favorably to Clanton’s relaxed appeal and interpretive skill, noting how the singer delivered R&B with genuine feeling and projected an engaging, friendly manner. The producer therefore placed both Clanton and Holler under his guidance, cut sides of each fronting the Rockets, and secured contracts for them with Mississippi-based Ace Records in September 1957.
Initially Clanton remained overshadowed by Ace’s star attraction, Huey “Piano” Smith, fresh from “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu” and poised to release “Don’t You Just Know It.” Over time, however, Clanton’s own “Just a Dream” began attracting regional airplay and sales that gradually spread nationwide. By 1958 the single had climbed to number four on the Billboard Pop chart and reached the top of the R&B list, instantly elevating him to one of Ace’s premier artists. Subsequent appearances on American Bandstand, dates beyond the South, a Hollywood Bowl engagement, and spots on Freed’s traveling revues culminated in his featured role in Go Johnny Go, where he performed “Ship on a Stormy Sea,” “My Love Is Strong,” and “It Takes a Long, Long Time” alongside Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Sandy Stewart, the Flamingos, the Cadillacs, Jo-Ann Campbell, Eddie Cochran, and Ritchie Valens.
His follow-up was a double-sided release pairing “Letter to an Angel”—a track whose mood and substance echoed Johnny Ace’s “Pledging My Love”—with “A Part of Me”; both sides charted modestly. Clanton next reached number 33 with “My Own True Love,” drawn from the main-title theme of Gone with the Wind and marking the first single he neither wrote nor co-wrote, usually in tandem with Matassa. Not until 1960 did he return to the Top Ten, this time with “Go Jimmy Go,” a Doc Pomus–Mort Shuman composition that peaked at number five. By then the teen-idol wave was cresting and Clanton fit the mold effortlessly, thanks to his looks and affable demeanor; his sound accordingly shifted from R&B toward a milder, pop-oriented white rock & roll style. Although he still contributed an occasional original, he relied more heavily on outside writers such as Pomus and Shuman or Neil Sedaka and Howie Greenfield.
Drafted in early 1961, Clanton served two years in the U.S. Army. Ace attempted to sustain his visibility by issuing a string of singles, among them his own “Don’t Look at Me” and Dr. John’s “Because I Do.” These early-sixties sides were robust rockers that signaled a partial return to his original New Orleans foundation after the string of pop ballads. Upon his discharge he scored his final major success with “Venus in Blue Jeans,” which climbed to number seven in mid-1962 and reaffirmed his standing as a central figure on the Mississippi label. One additional chart entry, “Darkest Street in Town,” closed out his hit-making period. He kept performing after Ace folded in the mid-sixties and later recorded for Phillips, Mala, Laurie, and Imperial, yet the British Invasion altered popular taste and reduced opportunities for regular work.
During the seventies Clanton worked as a disc jockey and mounted his own oldies revue; reports indicate he experienced a religious conversion in the eighties. In the nineties he shared oldies bills with former labelmate Frankie Ford, and such appearances persisted through the first decade of the new millennium.
Albums
Just a Dream / You Aim to Please
2023
Venus in Blue Jeans / Highway Bound
2023
Born Again
2007
To Know Him is to Love Him / Another Sleepless Night
1978
Go, Jimmy Go / Venus in Blue Jeans
1963
Singles
