Jim Lowe

Jim Lowe ( born May 7, 1927 in Springfield, Missouri ) is a former American professional disc jockey in the mid- 1950s was briefly known as pop singer with the number -one hit The Green Door (1956). In Germany, composed by him Countryhit Gambler 's Guitar was a number -one hit as The Laughing vagabond in the German version of Cc Catch.

Life

Lowe worked after his studies at the University of Missouri - Columbia in 1948, first in Indianapolis and then in Chicago as a disc jockey. He was awarded a contract as a singer with Mercury Records and wrote country and western songs that he recorded. One of these songs was Gambler 's Guitar, which he self-published in May 1953 as a single. His label mate Rusty Draper coverte Gambler 's Guitar and brought the song in the same month on the same label as a single on the market. Drapers version debuted at number six on the country charts and also in the pop charts, and was more than a million copies sold, while Lowes version, had to settle for position 26. In German-speaking countries was " Gambler's Guitar", but more than four years later, as The Laughing Rover in a version of Cc Catch also a Millionenhit; the German could even sell song in the U.S., more than 300,000 of his singles covers from Lowes. The Belgian Bobbejaan brought, also in 1958, a version in Dutch ( " De Laughing Vagebond " ) in the hit parade.

Lowe took a short time to after the first success of Gambler 's Guitar to New York City, where he had obtained a job as a DJ at a different station. In 1955, he joined the record company and signed a contract with Dot Records. Here he published the novelty song Close the Door ( They're Coming in the Windows), who moved into the pop charts. From 1955 he increasingly took on rock and roll songs and his next single was a cover version of Chuck Berry's Maybelline, which did not come into the pop charts, however, was able to place in the rhythm & blues charts of Billboard. There were other cover of Blue Suede Shoes (1956 ), in the original a hit by Carl Perkins, and Roc -a- Chicka ( 1957) by Warner Mack.

In 1956, he took on another novelty song, The Green Door, the composer Bob Davie with lyricist Marvin Moore had written. Davie ( on piano ) and his band played the music to a song Lowes, The High Fives provided the backing vocals. On November 3, the song took the number-one position in the Top 100 list of the Billboard charts. More than 2.5 million copies of the single were sold. In Britain, came Jim Lowe & The High Fives with The Green Door in the Top Ten; However, the greater success had here a cover version by Frankie Vaughan, who came to # 2. It was not until 1981, the song in the UK on the number-one position - in a re-recording of Shakin 'Stevens.

Lowe had another hit, Talkin 'to the Blues in the Top Twenty and released two albums on Dot. But he "knew, actually, I could not sing as he confessed in an interview in 1971. He concentrated from the late 1950s on his radio career. In 1962, he hosted the show on Saturday night monitor at NBC Radio; the following year he joined WNEW -AM, where he was the host of the broadcasts Milkman 's Matinee and Jim Lowe 's New York. In these shows he put quizzes, which earned him the nickname King of Trivia ( "King of trivial knowledge" ).

From 1969 to 1973 he was again with monitor at NBC, then he went back to WNEW -AM. Here he became program director in 1982; During this time the station changed its program from Adult Contemporary to a solid repertoire of big- band sound, Popstandards and jazz. 1992 WNEW -AM was sold to Bloomberg and set the music program. From 1996 to 1999 Lowe was at the transmitter WVNJ in Oakland (New Jersey), to then present back from New York for various cable radio station his shows Jim Lowe and Company and Jim Lowe and Friends. He is considered an expert on the popular music of the 1940s and 1950s. In 2004, he retired into private life.

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