Jimmy Liggins

Among the jump blues guitarists whose vigorous recordings served as an immediate bridge to rock & roll, Jimmy Liggins stood out as a notably fiercer bandleader than his older sibling Joe. Where Joe fronted the refined Honeydrippers, Jimmy commanded the more raucous Drops of Joy. After working a year as his brother’s chauffeur, the former boxer entered the studio in 1947 for Art Rupe’s Specialty imprint. The following year “Tear Drop Blues” climbed into the R&B Top Ten, and both “Careful Love” and “Don’t Put Me Down” scored hits in 1949. Yet it was Liggins’s hard-driving rockers—“Cadillac Boogie,” “Saturday Night Boogie Woogie Man,” and the eccentric one-chord workout “Drunk,” his final hit in 1953—that secured his place among rock’s originators. The potent saxophone section he assembled at Specialty featured Harold Land, Charlie “Little Jazz” Ferguson, and Maxwell Davis. Departing Specialty in 1954, Liggins paused briefly at Aladdin to cut the eventual standard “I Ain’t Drunk,” later revived by Albert Collins, before withdrawing from the spotlight.