James Edgar Spruill (June 9, 1934 – February 3, 1996), also known as Wild Jimmy Spruill, was an American New York based session guitarist, whose guitar solos featured on many rhythm and blues and pop hits of the 1950s and 1960s.
Biography
Early life and success
Spruill was born into a sharecropping family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States. As a child he listened to both country music and blues. He learned to play guitar, first with a cigar box guitar with an elastic band, and then graduated within a few years to a Fender Telecaster and Standel amplifier. Later in his career, he took to playing a Gibson Les Paul which he "modified" by sawing off most of the body.
He moved to New York City in 1955, and began working as a session musician. He most frequently worked for the record producers Danny and Bobby Robinson, who ran the Fire, Fury, Everlast, Enjoy and VIM record labels based at Bobby Robinson's Happy House of Hits record store in Harlem. He also worked for the Old Town, Vanguard and other New York-based labels, and appeared on records by King Curtis, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Shirelles, Tarheel Slim, and Elmore James, as well as releasing singles under his own name.
In May 1959 "The Happy Organ" by Dave "Baby" Cortez reached the top of the Billboard pop chart and was succeeded, the following week, by Wilbert Harrison's "Kansas City"; both records featured guitar solos by Spruill. Another well-known recording on which Spruill plays is "Fannie Mae" by Buster Brown, which hit the top of the R&B charts in early 1960. In 1961, he featured on Bobby Lewis's no.1 hit "Tossin' and Turnin'", and at the same time featured on The Shirelles' "Dedicated to the One I Love", which peaked at no.3.
Chartings as session player
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Artist
! Song title
! Date
! US charts
! R&B US charts
! Miscellaneous
|-
| Wilbert Harrison
| "Kansas City"
| 1959
| 1
| 1
|
|-
| Storey Sisters
| “Bad Motorcycle”
| 1958
|
|
|
|-
| Dave "Baby" Cortez
| “The Happy Organ”
| 1959
| 1
| 5
|
|-
| Little Anthony and the Imperials
| “So Much”
| 1959
| 87
| 24
|
|-
| Tarheel Slim and Little Ann
| "It’s Too Late"
|1959
|
| 20
|
|-
| Buster Brown
| “Fannie Mae”
| 1960
| 38
| 1
|
|-
| Bobby Marchan
| "There’s Something On Your Mind"
| 1960
|
| 1
|
|-
| Maxine Brown
| "All In My Mind"
| 1961
| 19
| 2
|
|-
| Lee Dorsey
| “Ya Ya”
| 1961
| 7
| 1
|
|-
| Bobby Lewis
| “Tossin' and Turnin'”
| 1961
| 1
| 1
|
|-
| The Shirelles
| “Dedicated to the One I Love”
| 1961
| 3
| 2
|
|-
| Solomon Burke
| "Down in the Valley"
| 1962
| 71
| 20
| Initially the B-side of “I’m Hanging Up My Heart For You”
|-
| Solomon Burke
| “I’m Hanging Up My Heart For You”
| 1962
| 85
| 15
|
|-
|}
Legacy
Spruill's work may be found on a number of compilation albums, including the following:
- Great R&B Instrumentals, Ace Records: 819 ("Hard Grind")
- N.Y. Wild Guitars, (P-Vine) (Japanese compilation)
- Scratch 'n Twist: Rare And Unissued New York Rhythm And Blues 1956-1962, Night Train International: NTI CD 7150
- Scratchin': The Wild Jimmy Spruill Story: GVC2039 released in 2014
References
External links
- Discography at wangdangdula.com
- Discography at wirz.de