The most unlikely feature of rock'n'roll music was the prominence of falsetto singing whereby male singers mimicked female voices. It is prominent throughout the hit recordings of Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Del Shannon, Roy Orbison and Frankie Valli, and one of the first artists to exploit this sound was Jimmy Jones, who had international success with "Handy Man" and "Good Timin'" (both 1960). With "Good Timin'", a UK No 1, Jones became the first black artist to sell a million copies of a single in the UK.
Jimmy Jones was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1930 and he war raised with a love for black vaudeville acts. He would attach bottle tops to his sneakers so that he could tap dance, and he loved hearing gospel singers with their voices. His first single, "Woman, Woman, Woman", was made with the doo-wop group the Sparks Of Rhythm in 1955 and he also recorded with the Savoys, the Pretenders and the Jones Boys. Although he did not have chart success, he was known around the Brill Building in New York and he would make demos for songwriters.
When Jones awoke with the idea for "Handy Man", his wife told him to go back to sleep but he knew he had something. He showed it to Otis Blackwell, who had written hits for Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Blackwell knocked the song into shape and the humorous lyric was about a modern-day Lothario with no skills at all, except for repairing broken hearts. This kept him busy 24 hours a day.
When the flautist did not arrive for the demo session, Otis Blackwell whistled in his place. The result was so successful that it was issued as a single. A disc jockey in Pittsburgh started playing it and it became a huge success, climbing to No 2 in the US and No 3 in the UK.
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