Jimmy Ruffin

Jimmy L. Ruffin, the older brother of David, was born May 7, 1939 in Collinsville, Ms. Jimmy and David began singing with their family group, the Spiritual Trying Four.They performed in church, school choir competetions,(often taking home the prize) and with various gospel groups. Jimmy became a session singer at Motown in 1961. Shortly thereafter, he joined the US Army. While in the military, Jimmy sang in doo-wop groups entertaining the troops.

After he got out of the army, Jimmy returned to Detroit and began singing at the Ebony Club in Muskegon. Mary Wells and Marv Johnson convinced Jimmy to audition for Motown. Jimmy was working for Ford Motor Company and playing Detroit clubs on the weekends.

In 1964 Jimmy recorded Since I Lost You, a smooth soulful ballad, produced by Norman Whitfield. His next release was As Long As There Is L-O-V-E Love in 1965. The following year, Jimmy had huge success with What Becomes of The Brokenhearted with The Originals backing him. Later, that same year, Jimmy charted with I’ve Passed This Way Before, a tune which The Temptations later covered. It was believed that Jimmy was on his way to stardom, but that was not to happen. Many believe that it was the lack of promotion by Motown that led to a stagnant career. He released several other albums. In 1970, he released I Am My Brother’s Keeper with his brother David. The pair did an outstanding cover of Ben E. King’s Stand By Me! In the early ’70s,

Jimmy moved to England because he felt his career was not going anywhere in the US. He had a huge following abroad. He now makes his home there and is the host of a BBC radio show. Hopefully, soon, Jimmy will return to the US where he has family and friends that would love for him to be ‘home.’

Source: [http://blast-from-thepast.com/blog/?tag=jimmy-ruffin]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Born in Collinsville, Mississippi, to Eli, a sharecropper and preacher, and his wife, Ophelia, he was the older brother of David Ruffin, who would go on to become lead singer with the Temptations. As children, Jimmy and David, with another brother, Quincy, a sister, Rita Mae, and their father and stepmother (Ophelia died shortly after David’s birth), traveled as a family gospel group.

In 1961, Ruffin joined the Motown musical family in Detroit when he was signed to its subsidiary label Miracle, for which he released the single Don’t Feel Sorry for Me. His progress was interrupted when he was called up for military service. After being discharged from the army, he came back to Motown in 1964 and was invited to join the Temptations as lead singer. Aiming for a solo career, Jimmy instead recommended his brother David, who was reaching the end of a solo contract with Chess Records. Jimmy signed a solo deal with Motown’s Soul label, which led to his breakthrough with Brokenhearted.

In 1968, David Ruffin was ejected from the Temptations because of his temperamental behaviour (he had demanded that the group be renamed David Ruffin & the Temptations). The two brothers then teamed up to make the album I Am My Brother’s Keeper (1970), which enjoyed moderate success and included versions of Stand By Me and He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.

Jimmy, meanwhile, decided to concentrate on the more receptive UK market, and in 1970 he scored Top 10 hits in Britain with Farewell Is a Lonely Sound and It’s Wonderful (to Be Loved By You). Reissues of Brokenhearted and Farewell Is a Lonely Sound in 1974 brought further chart success. He enjoyed a major return to the limelight in 1980, when Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees produced his album Sunrise. A single from it, Hold on to My Love, reached No 10 in the States and No 7 in the UK.

Having moved to Britain, in 1984 Ruffin collaborated with Paul Weller on the song Soul Deep (attributed to the Council Collective), a disc aimed at raising money for families of striking coalminers. In 1986 he sang on Heaven 17’s songs A Foolish Thing to Do and My Sensitivity, and he recorded duets with Maxine Nightingale and Brenda Holloway. During the 1990s, Ruffin also branched out into radio work, and made the seven-part series Jimmy Ruffin’s Sweet Soul Music for Radio 2. After David died of a cocaine overdose in 1991, Jimmy became a committed anti-drugs campaigner.

A compilation of his hits, There Will Never Be Another You, was released in 2012, and Ruffin had reportedly been working on new songs for an album to mark his 77th birthday in 2013.

His surviving family includes his children Philicia, Jimmy Lee Jr, Arlet, Ophelia and Camilla. Another son, Jimmie Ray, predeceased him.

• Jimmy Ruffin, singer, born 7 May 1936; died 17 November 2014

• This article was amended on 23 November 2014. Ruffin’s father was known as Eli, rather than Elias, and he was a sharecropper and preacher rather than a Baptist minister. Ruffin’s surviving family also includes his children Arlet, Ophelia and Camilla; Jimmy Ray, another son, predeceased him.

Source:: [http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/20/jimmy-ruffin]