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James Frederick Rodgers (born September 18, 1933, Camas, Washington) is sometimes classified as a rock and roll singer, but his style was more typical of traditional pop music. He is not related to the legendary country singer of the same name.
He was taught music by his mother, learned to play the piano and guitar, and formed a band while he served in the United States Air Force. Like a number of other entertainers of the era, he was one of the contestants on Arthur Godfrey's talent show on the radio. When Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore left RCA Records to found a new record company, Roulette Records, they became aware of Jimmie's talent and signed him up.
In the summer of 1957, he recorded a song called "Honeycomb", which had been done by Bob Merrill three years earlier. It was his first big hit, staying on the top of the charts for four weeks. The following year, he had a number of other hits that reached the top ten on the charts: "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", "Oh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again", "Secretly", and "Are You Really Mine". Other hits include "Bimbombey", "Ring-a-ling-a-lario", "Tucumcari," and "Tender Love and Care (T.L.C)". In 1959 he had a televised variety show on the NBC network.
In 1962, he moved to the Dot label, and four years later to A&M Records. He also appeared in some movies, including The Little Shepard of Kingdom Come, opposite Neil Hamilton, and Back Door to Hell, which he helped finance.
In 1967, he had his last top-100 single, "Child of Clay". On December 20, 1967, while preparing to do a film for 20th Century Fox, he was a victim of an assault after allegedly being pulled over by an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer on the San Diego Freeway in Southern California, receiving a severe beating, leading to a fractured skull. Neither the assailant(s) nor the reason for the assault has ever been verifiably established. Not long after the assault, he appeared on a late-night talk show and discussed it, but all he could recall were bright lights, presumably from the car of his attacker(s). Rodgers later claimed that members of the San Diego Police Department had assaulted him. After Rodgers sued the Los Angeles Police Department, the LAPD settled out of court for $200,000.
Recovery from his injuries caused an approximately year-long period in which he ceased to perform. He eventually returned, though not reaching the top singles chart again. He did, however, make an appearance on the album chart as late as 1969. Also, during the summer of 1969, he made a brief return to network television with a summer variety show on ABC.
His first wife, Colleen, with whom he had two children, Michelle and Michael, had a fatal blood clot shortly after the 1967 beating. He remarried in 1970, and Jimmie and Trudy Rodgers had two sons, Casey and Logan. He and Trudy divorced in the late 1970s, and he remarried again. Jimmie and Mary Rodgers are still married today, and they have a daughter, Katrine, who was born in 1989.
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