ArtistInfo

Singing Jimmy Drake

*1912
Pop and World
A.k.a. Jimmy Drake Nervous Norvus

Memphis native Drake was born in 1912 and passed away on July 24, 1968 at age 56 from cirrhosis of the liver. He was a truck driver who dreamed of becoming a songwriter. He took out ads in a music magazines offering to record songs submitted by budding amateur songwriters. With a little home studio set up, he was able to supplement his truck driving income with his new music service. With the help of radio personality Red Blanchard, whom Drake had been sending tapes of his songs to, Drake recorded 'Transfusion' under the name Nervous Norvus for the Dot label in 1956. The successful single was followed up with another hit, "Ape Call". Drake declined an invitation to appear on the Ed Sullivan show to perform "Transfusion" due to his shyness. A third single "The Fang" flopped and Drake was subsequently dropped from the label and resumed his home based music service. After leaving Dot records, more singles followed on a sporadic basis on various small indie labels, but nothing ever came of them. He also made one-off acetate recordings of some demos, some of which were discovered at thrift stores and auction sites. 2004 saw the release of a CD anthology collecting together 33 recordings Drake made under his own name, and as Nervous Norvus entitled "Stone Age Woo: The Zorch Sounds of Nervous Norvus" on the Norton label. More recently, another CD compilation -much like the first- was released in 2014 titled, "Zorch! Transfusion time with Nervous Norvus and Red Blanchard" on the Righteous label.

Genres

• Pop
• World
• Country
• Folk

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