In 1956 he won a radio talent contest on the Arthur Godfrey show, which gave him a chance to cut a single. He also collected folk songs that he performed in his upbeat style with his smoky voice. One of those was Club Unique where the club owner, a woman named Bobbi Green, introduced him to the song Honeycomb, which he added to his repertoire and it became a club favourite. After his release from the army he got work in a paper mill but continued to play at different venues. Later, while still in the air force, he joined a band called The Melodies.Īfter two years in Korea, he was posted to Stewart Air Force Base in Smyrna, Tennessee, which allowed him to perform in the clubs around Nashville at night. He served in Korea during the war, providing support for the front lines and, at night, in the barracks he would regale his comrades with a tune or two. But he dropped out after a year of studying engineering to join the air force. To put himself through college, he got a job at the same mill where his parents worked. Pop singer Jimmie Rodgers in Australia in 1964. His mother, who used to play piano for silent films, had taught him piano and guitar. He also sang in the school choir at Camas High School from which he graduated in 1951, majoring in music. His parents were process workers at a paper mill who took Rodgers to church on Sundays where he sang in the church choir. He was born James Frederick Rodgers on September 18, 1933, in Camas, Washington, in the US. But it left the pop star with a broken arm, fractured skull and a long journey back to health, waylaying what had once been a glittering career. The incident, which happened 50 years ago today, remains something of a mystery. All Rodgers remembers after that moment was being hit on the head and arm by something hard and heavy before he blacked out. Rodgers pulled over to the side of the road.Ī man approached the car, so Jimmie rolled down his window thinking it was his conductor Eddie Samuels who had left the party at the same time. He took a turn-off near his home when he noticed someone in a car behind him flashing their lights. POP singer Jimmie Rodgers, best known for his 1957 number one hit Honeycomb, had just left a Christmas party and was making his way home along the Los Angeles freeway.
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