James Gilreath

James Gilreath (14 November 1936 – 7 September 2003) was a pop singer and songwriter, whose single went to number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963.

Career

James William Gilreath (commonly written as James or Jimmy Gilreath) was born in Una Community, Clay County, near Prairie, Mississippi and began his musical career in the early 1960s as a member of a local area band named "The Nite-Liters", which produced an instrumental record entitled "Nervous" in 1962 under the Vee Eight label in Nashville. It was later released by Verve Records headquartered in Los Angeles, California. This recording, composed by Jerry Hood, a band member, featured accomplished trumpet player and co-founder of the band, John Mihelic of Houston, Mississippi, a town located several miles northwest of Prairie. As a musician, Gilreath played both guitar and piano. His first independent 45 rpm vocal release, in 1962 by Vee Eight Records, contained "I Need It" and "Time Hasn't Helped," but it was not successful. In early 1963, however, Gilreath's future hit song mentioned above, "Little Band of Gold" was released, by Statue Records of Tupelo, Mississippi. Gilreath's singing on that record was accompanied by Mihelic and his trumpet, and other instrumentalists. Side two of the 45 rpm record was entitled "I'll Walk With You." The sheet music to "Little Band of Gold" was copyrighted and published by Beaik Publishing Co. of Greenwood, Mississippi and later distributed by Oahu Publishing Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. For reasons unknown, Statue Records soon sold the rights to "Little Band of Gold" to Joy Records of New York City, and by the end of April it had become a hit for that label, reaching No. 21 on the Pop Billboard Chart and remarkably, No. 19 on the R & B Billboard Chart.

Following the release of "Little Band of Gold", overseas countrys obtained the rights to release the song. In middle to late 1963 Sonet Records of Scandinavia released a 45 rpm record of "Little Band of Gold" and "I'll Walk With You" combined with two instrumental tunes by John Mihelic that had been released on a 45 rpm by Joy Records in 1962. The Mihelic tunes were "Red Wing" and "Cotton Fields", which had been written by others. The glossy pasteboard sleeve for this four-song 45 rpm possessed a head-shot photo of Gilreath, along with a separate photo of John Mihelic playing his trumpet. Mihelic was billed as "The man behind the trumpet," referring to Mihelic's trumpet playing on "Little Band of Gold." The back of the sleeve possessed a background write-up about Gilreath and Mihelic in the Swedish language.

Also, in 1963 and in 1964 two other 45 rpm singles were released by Joy. The first was entitled on side A, "Lollipops, Lace, and Lipstick" and "Mean Ole River" on the B side. Neither did well, nor the songs on the second release, consisting of "Keep Her Out of Sight" and "Blue is My Color." To this point all released records but "Lollipops" had been written by Gilreath. Finally, in 1965, another 45 rpm recording written and sung by Gilreath was released by Joy Records, having "Your Day is Coming" and "Pearls, Gold, and Silver." He was disappointed to watch this record also fail to become a hit.

Due to a disagreement with the record label, which ceased operations in 1965, Gilreath chose to concentrate on songwriting rather than recording records. In 1967, R & B/soul singer Jimmy Hughes released a single written by Gilreath entitled, "Why Not Tonight," which was also the name of a successful album subsequently released by Hughes that same year. The Fame Records label single advanced to No. 5 on the Billboard R & B Charts, which was very satisfying to Gilreath and partly made up for the failures of his post-hit releases.

The only other known 45 rpm record in addition to "Lollipops, Lace, and Lipstick" that was not written by Gilreath but recorded by him consisted of "Learning to Lose You" and "The Only Hell My Mama Raised Was Me," which was released by Papa Joe Records of Nashville, evidently in the second half of the 1960s. Unlike Gilreath's other known recordings, these two songs have distinctive country music sounds. Also, at least one of the songs besides "Why Not Tonight" that was written but not recorded by him has a distinctive country sound. That song, "Big Silver Tears," was recorded by country music singer Mack Allen Smith, on a 45 rpm released by JAB Records of Atlanta in 1967. Earlier, Smith had recorded another of Gilreath's songs, "The Skeleton Fight," on the Statue Records label in 1964. Smith's recording of "Skeleton Fight" was covered at least several times in the coming years. This halloween type novelty song by Smith was fairly recently included on a compilation CD of such songs entitled "Monster Bop," by Dee Jay Records of Hamburg, Germany (1993).

Beginning in 1963 with country singer Bill Anderson's inclusion of it on his album "Still", a number of singers covered Gilreath's "Little Band of Gold" hit, including in 1966, popular British singer Vince Hill's inclusion of it on an album named "You're My World." In 1969, it was included on an album of instrumentals recorded by the noted saxophone artist Boots Randolph ("Yakety Revisited"). Also in that year, The Hep Stars group of Sweden released a 45 rpm featuring the song. In 1977, The Tennessee Guitars included it on an instrumental album named "20 Pieces of Country Gold," and in 1978 it was sung by country singer Paul Martin on one of his albums entitled "Great Country Gold." Earlier, in 1975, the well known country singer Sonny James also recorded "Little Band of Gold," and it proved to be a No. 5 hit on the country music record charts. Sonny James also included it on two of his albums, in 1975 and 2002. Thus "Little Band of Gold" was a rare multiple cross-over, Pop, R & B/Soul, and Country. In total, Gilreath wrote or co-wrote the lyrics to at least 25 songs.

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 and Kay produced no children.

ources and Notes

*Ace Records' promotional discussion of its CD entitled "Teenage Crush, Vol. 3" (2000; 2004). The text, by Rob Finnis, states that among the recordings on the CD is "James Gilreath's infectious 'Little Band of Gold'" (http://www.acerecord.co.uk/content.php?page_id=59&release=740). The CD was produced, recorded and copyrighted in London, UK by Ace Records, LTD. in 2000.

*Amazon.com review of Eric Records' "Hard to Find 45s on CD: 1960-1965," Vol. 10 (April 23, 2007). The reviewer states: "You may or may not be familiar with James Gilreath's 1963 hit 'Little Band of Gold.' This is a terrific tune that is extremely hard to come by and I was happy to see that Eric managed to include it here" (http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Find-45s-CD-1960-1965/dp/B000N69OYO). See the booklet inside the Eric Records CD case for additional information about Gilreath. However, it erroneously states that he died in 2006. The CD, copyrighted in 2007 by Eric Records of San Leandro, California, was manufactured by Hit Parade Records in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.

*Bill Anderson, "Still", 33 1/3 rpm album, Decca Records, 1963. "Little Band of Gold" is on Side 1, Track 2.

*Boots Randolph, "Yakety Revisited," 33 1/3 rpm album, Monument Records, 1969. "Little Band of Gold" is the fourth tune on Side 1.

*Brent Coleman, "James Gilreath: A Little Band of Gold." "Tombigbee Country Magazine", Aberdeen, Mississippi, April 2008. Despite some errors re the positions to which "Little Band of Gold" advanced in the U.S. and overseas, this article, written thru the memories of several of Gilreaths friends and music colleagues, is interesting and informative.

*Hep Stars, "Little Band of Gold," 45 rpm, Swedish Olga Records, 1969.

*James Gilrath and John Mihelic. 45 rpm. "Little Band of Gold" and "I'll Walk With You" by Gilreath; "Red Wings" and "Cotton Fields" by Mihelic. Sonet Records, Sweden, 1963. A Joy Records Product.

*Jerry Osborne, "The Official Price Guide to Records," 18th Edition. House of Collectibles/Random House, New York City, et al., 2007), pp. 302, 304.

*Jimmy Hughes, "Why Not Tonight?", 45 rpm, Fame Records, 1967, and an LP album entitled "Why Not Tonight?", Atco Records, 1967.

*Joel Whitburn, "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits," 1955-2003 (Billboard Books, New York City, 2004), pp. 256, 758.

*Joel Whitburn, "The Billboard Book of Top 40 R & B and Hip-Hop Hits," 1942-2004 (Billboard Books, New York City, 2006), pp. 713, 218, 255, 765.

*John Mihelic, "Red Wings" and "Cotton Fields", 45 rpm, Select Records, Inc. (Joy Records), 1962.

*"Joy Records," in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Records.

*KTSA Top 66 Survey Week of April 18, 1963, in the San Antonio "Light" newspaper, April 20, 1963. "Little Band of Gold" is No. 1 on this San Antonio, Texas radio station pop chart.

*Mack Allen Smith, "Big Silver Tears," 45 rpm, JAB Records, 1967.

*Mack Allen Smith, "The Skeleton Fight," 45 rpm, Statue Records, 1964. Also included on two of Smith's albums, "The Sound of Mack Allen Smith," Redita Records (Holland), 1979, and "Gotta Rock Tonight," Charly Records (England), 1982. James Gilreath assisted Smith with the recording of the song by singing harmony vocals.
*Mike Hellicar, "New to the Charts/Broken Arm Led to Disc Fame," in New Musical Express, Issue No. 852 (May 10, 1963). London, England.

*"Monster Bop," CD, Dee Jay Records, 1993. "The Skeleton Fight" sung by Mack Allen Smith is Track 8.

*Nite-Liters, "Nervous," 45 rpm, Vee Eight Records, 1962, followed by Verve Records (MGM Records), 1962.

*Obituary of Jimmy Gilreath, in the "Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal [Tupelo] ," Sept. 9, 2003. http://www.djournal.com/pages/archive.asp?ID=40600&pub=1&div=News. The obituary states that he died at age 66, which verifies the birth year on his grave marker of 1936. Many sources on the internet erroneoulsly state that his birth year was 1939.

*Paul Martin, "Great Country Gold," 33 1/3 rpm album, Plantation Records, 1978. "Little Band of Gold" is Side 1, Track 5.

*Personal Recollections, 1958-early 1990s, of James R.(Jim) Atkinson, Columbus, Miss. (July 2007).

*Personal Recollections, 1950s-2003, of William (Bill) Sisk of Tupelo, Miss. (August and November, 2007).

*Presidential Records, CD: "The Joy/Select Story: Various Artists, 1956-1965" (London, 2006). Twenty-six pop songs released by Joy Records of New York City. "Little Band of Gold" is Track 12.

*"Saltillo man leaves rich musical legacy," by M. Scott Morris. In the "Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal [Tupelo] ," Sept. 9, 2003. http://www.djournal.com/pages/archive.asp?ID=40606&pub=1&div=News.

*Sonny James, "Little Band of Gold," 45 rpm, Columbia Records, 1975.

*Sonny James, "A Little Bit South of Saskatoon," 33 1/3 rpm album, Columbia Records, 1975.

*Sonny James, "The Complete Columbia & Monument Hits," 33 1/3 rpm album, Sony Music Entertainment, 2002. "Little Band of Gold" is Track 8.

*Tennessee Guitars, "20 Pieces of Country Gold," Plantation Records, 1977. "Little Band of Gold" is on Side 1, Track 8.

*Vince Hill, "You're My World," 33 1/3 rpm album, Music for Pleasure Records/EMI Record Co., 1966. "Little Band of Gold" is on Side 2, Track 4.