Nervous Norvus

Nervous Norvus was the performing name of Jimmy Drake (1918-1968). Nervous Norvus was born in the year World War 1 ended and was almost 40 by the time he had his 2 hit singles in 1956. His records were made with input from one time jazz trombonist Red Blanchard who he was sending demos to in the hope of finding an artist to record them. Blanchard had been an influence, particularly with the "jive" language employed in the lyrics. His own attempts at recording had been no more than as a member of the 4 Jokers who'd cut the first "Transfusion". After his brief hour of glory which amounted to less than 6 months he concentrated on his demo service which was providing music for other peoples' songs and where he'd charge around 7 dollars to make these demos, some of which led to publishing contracts for the songwriters. After a final single on Dot, the artist had his contract dropped and only recorded after sporadically for a series of Indie labels like Embee and Big Ben up to 1960. Nervous Norvus lived until mid 1968 when he died from an alcohol related illness.