Jimmy Hughes

Jimmy Hughes (born 25th April 1935, Leighton, Alabama, U.S.A. - Still Lives in Leighton, AL). Like many of our great blues singers Jimmy Hughes received his early training in the gospel field. As a youngster he started singing in his local church choir in his home town of Florence, Alabama. At the age of eight he showed such ability that he became a soloist with the choir. When he reached his teens he decided on a career as a spiritual singer and a few years later he joined a gospel group. For many years he sang spirituals' with groups and as a soloist. It was this early experience that gave Jimmy Hughes the confidence and the emotional quality that marks his singing today. In 1962 Jimmy Hughes came to the attention of Rick Hall, the President of Fame Records. His first recording for Fame was a moving blues tune, I'm Qualified. Although it didn't turn into a big hit, it received a great deal of air play and sales throughout the South. Jimmy Hughes' next record, a tune he wrote himself, turned into a national hit. That tune was "Steal Away," and the great success of that record thrust Jimmy Hughes into the limelight and made him a solid attraction on the one-nighter and concert circuit. With an intense, crying vocal style that was perfect for deep soul ballads, Hughes scored with the pleading "Why Not Tonight" in 1967, although the untypically uptempo "Neighbor, Neighbor" proved another giant hit. Hughes broke away from Hall and recorded an album for Volt before retiring from performing in the mid-'70s.