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Remembered in UK as a one hit wonder making number 2 in charts in UK and number 1 in US, with below,but was better known in USA. 8 top 40 hits.

Song was initially banned believe it or not by BBC due to the line " At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man - Big John" written on it. (Some versions of the song change the last line to "lies a big, big man" to replace what was at the time considered to be borderline profane language.)

He did actually have a very minor hit with a song called Little Black Book in UK also but no one remembers it

Jimmy passed away this week.

From the mid '50's into the mid '60's he had a TV show based in the Washington DC area. I was quite young at the time but I do remember seeing it occasionally (my Mom used to watch it). He had a fairly good run on the country charts here in the US, Big John was by far his biggest hit though.

I thought he was a pretty good actor, too (I always think of him as Willard White in Diamonds Are Forever).

RIP, Jimmy.