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James Gilreath (born 14 November 1939, Una Community, Clay County, near Prairie, Mississippi — died 7 September 2003) was a pop singer and songwriter, whose debut single went to number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963.
Gilreath began his musical career in about 1960 as a member of a local area band named "The Nite-Liters", which produced an instrumental record entitled "Nervous." This record featured accomplished trumpet player and co-founder of the band, John Mihelic of Houston, Mississippi, a town located several miles northwest of Prairie. Soon afterwards, Gilreath separated from the band and in 1963 recorded the record mentioned above. Gilreath was accompanied by Mihelic and his trumpet, and other instrumentalists. Side one of the record was entitled "Little Band of Gold," which was the hit song on the disc. Side two was entitled "I'll Walk With Him." Also in 1963, a second 45 rpm single was released, and entitled on side one, "Lollipops, Lace, and Lipstick." Neither this song or the B-side, entitled "Mean Ole River," did well. Both 45s were originally released by Joy Records of New York City. All but "Lollipops" had been written by him. A second recording, in 1964, of "Lollipops, Lace, and Lipstick" by Jimmy Hughes "did rather well" on the pop charts, according to the Gilreath information in the booklet inside Ace Records' modern CD of early hit pop songs entitled Teenage Crush, Vol. 3.
Also in 1963, or possibly early 1964, Joy Records produced a promo 45 rpm of two other songs written and sung by Gilreath. The songs were entitled, "Keep Her Away From Me" and "My Color is Blue." Due to a dispute with the record label, which ceased operations in 1964, Gilreath chose to forego recording to concentrate on songwriting. In 1969, "Little Band of Gold" was included on an album of instrumentals recorded by the instrumentalist, Boots Randlolph. Later, in 1975, noted country singer Sonny James recorded "Little Band of Gold," and it proved to be a No. 5 hit on the country music record charts.
In 1972 Gilreath married Kay Long of Saltillo, Mississippi, located a few miles north of the city of Tupelo. They thereafter lived on a farm at Saltillo, where Gilreath died in a tractor accident on 7 September 2003. He is buried in Lee Memorial Park near Tupelo. He had no children.
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