Jimmy Wakely was born in Arkansas on February 16, 1914, but was raised in Oklahoma during the Depression and the tragic Dust Bowl era.  He became interested in music and ultimately developed an act named the “Bell Boys,” which was named after the sponsor, and they performed locally and made a few recordings.  One of the members of that group was singer/songwriter Johnny Bond.

The story goes that Gene Autry was touring, and had stops in Oklahoma.  Somehow, Wakely and group connected with the Republic Pictures star, and Autry invited them to California to work on his Melody Ranch radio program.  Their first movie appearance was in SAGA OF DEATH VALLEY (Republic, 1939) starring Roy Rogers.  Soon afterwards, the Wakely family relocated to sunny California.  And around 1940, the Wakely group joined the Melody Ranch radio show, and Bond would stay with it for most of it’s sixteen year run.  Wakely would be with the program for a year or two, but would leave as he was becoming busy with more movie appearances and a new recording contract with Decca.  Later in the 1940s, he’d ink a recording contract with Capitol Records.

Wakely spent about ten years singing and starring in B westerns.  But that was one piece of a much larger career.  He had his own series of comic books.  His recording work included several hits on both the country and popular charts.  He had a long-running radio show in the 1950s.  He was one of the early “country/western” recording artists that was able to cross over to popular music.  His several recordings with Margaret Whiting are memorable, including “Slipping Around” and one of my favorite Christmas songs, “Silver Bells.”  He wrote songs ... he performed on stage ... he started his own record company named Shasta Records ... overall, a multi-talented artist and performer.

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