Jimmy Cook

West Coast baritone Jimmy Cook had a scattered career as a band vocalist in the early 1940s, briefly singing with four orchestras. Cook had enlisted in the Army prior to Pearl Harbor but had been honorably discharged due to a “defect in vision,” making him draft-exempt, which was perhaps his biggest draw for bandleaders at a time when male vocalists were being scooped up right and left by the armed services. Cook spent the early 1950s as a solo artist on the night club circuit before finding his greatest success as part of a singing trio in the mid-1950s.

Nothing is known about Cook’s early life. He first appears in the historical record in August 1943, when he was slated to replace Margaret Whiting in Freddie Slack’s newly reorganized band. Whiting had signed on for the group’s one-week opening engagement at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco. Whether Cook actually ended up joining Slack’s band is unknown. By October, he was with Tommy Dorsey’s band, with reports at the time claiming he’d never sang “in public” before his debut with Dorsey at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Dorsey heard Cook on a local West Coast radio program, Hollywood Showcase, a talent show, which he won, and signed him the same night, liking the way he performed “All or Nothing at All.”

Cook was released from Dorsey’s outfit in November and placed on reserve to make way for Teddy Walters, who caused a sensation but could never agree on a contract with the bandleader and left at year’s end. Dorsey rehired Cook in January to take Walters’ place. He was let go later that month, however, when Dorsey brought in Bob Allen. Cook filed a complaint against Dorsey for breach of contract, eventually settling for $1,000.^[1]

In January 1945, Cook joined Bob Mohr’s band. That same month he subbed for Buddy Di Vito with Harry James at the Los Angeles Palladium when Di Vito was called back to New York by his draft board for a physical. Cook was in Hal McIntyre’s orchestra by at least May of that year, but had to leave the group when he was found physically unable to go overseas for the band’s USO tour starting in June. He was replaced by another ex-Tommy Dorsey vocalist, Frankie Lester. Cook recorded solo on the Modern label in 1948. In an interview, he also claimed to have made several recordings with Spike Jones in addition to touring with the USO in Korea, though no sources could be found to verify either.^[2]

By the early 1950s, Cook was making the nightclub circuit, singing and accompanying himself on guitar and a miniature harmonica he called “Little Lady.” He’d begun the harmonica gimmick during a bout of laryngitis in Honolulu when he needed something to help him through his act. By the mid-1950s, he’d teamed up with Don Sutton and Dick Rock in an act called Don, Dick and Jimmy. The trio made several recordings on the Crown label in 1954 and 1955. Modern re-released Cook’s solo recordings in 1956.^[3]

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