An Unfortunate Career

For years I considered writing a book about a singer named Jimmy Ellis. I even had a hardback press interested in the project, but I found it tough sledding to gather necessary material for a decent-sized biography. It's possible I'll go back to it someday, unless someone finally releases a good book about him.

Yeah, they actually released this morbid piece of shit cover.

Ellis was a singer whose voice was uncannily similar to that of Elvis Presley's. If he wanted to, he

could sound so much like Presley that even Presley's biggest fans found it difficult to tell them apart. He was signed to a number of labels, mainly smaller ones, before finally ending up at famed Sun Records. Alas, he was convinced to put on a silly fucking mask and perform as a guy named "Orion" who, it was said, was actually Elvis Presley--or perhaps some kind of resurrection of the King. It was a sad decision and a terrible mistake on the part of Ellis and his management team.

Ellis as a clown.

The worst part of all of this is that--in his prime--Ellis had a very remarkable voice. At some point he finally stopped chasing the brass ring and retired to run a business in his native Alabama. And was murdered by an armed robber at that place of business.

I put up this video on YouTube because all other versions of this song were rather murky from a listening perspective. He cut this tune for the TV series McCloud, which starred the late Dennis Weaver. Weaver's patented catch phrase on the show was "there you go". The production company commissioned a song, and Ellis was chosen to put voice to it. It was even released as a 45rpm record and, as I recall, did manage to chart, but never got very high on those charts. Which is a shame because it's a pretty good tune that deserves a wider audience.