This Week in Texas Music History: Jimmy Dean
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This Week in Texas Music History, we’ll remember a country singer who found his fortune at the breakfast table.
Jimmy Dean was born August 10, 1928, in Plainview, Texas. He started performing on radio in the late 1940s, and, by the 1950s was hosting his own television show, the Town & Country Jamboree. However, Dean’s career really took off in 1961 with his self-composed ballad, “Big, Bad John.” This song about a miner who sacrificed his life to save his fellow workers reached Number 1 on both the pop and country charts.
Jimmy Dean made several other recordings and appeared in numerous T.V. shows and movies. However, he may be best remembered for building a breakfast food empire through his Jimmy Dean Meat Company.
Next time on This Week in Texas Music History, we’ll meet the original “Mr. T.”
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