Wild Jimmy Spruill

about

James "Jimmy" Spruill (June 9, 1934 – February 15, 1996) also known as Wild Jimmy Spruill, was an American New York based session guitarist, whose guitar solos featured on many rhythm and blues and pop hits of the 1950s and 1960s. Spruill was born into a sharecropping family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States. As a child he listened to both country music and blues. He learned to play guitar, first with a cigar box guitar with an elastic band, and then graduating within a few years to a Fender Telecaster and Standel amplifier. Later in his career, he took to playing a Gibson Les Paul which he "modified" by sawing off most of the body. He moved to New York City in 1955, and began working as a session musician. He most frequently worked for the record producers Danny and Bobby Robinson, who ran the Fire, Fury, Everlast, Enjoy and VIM record labels based at Bobby Robinson's Happy House of Hits record store in Harlem. He also worked for the Old Town, Vanguard and other New York-based labels, and appeared on records by King Curtis, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Shirelles, Tarheel Slim, and Elmore James, as well as releasing singles under his own name. In May 1959 "The Happy Organ" by Dave "Baby" Cortez reached the top of the Billboard pop chart and was succeeded, the following week, by Wilbert Harrison's "Kansas City"; both records featured guitar solos by Spruill. Another well-known recording on which Spruill plays is "Fannie Mae" by Buster Brown, which hit th

top songs

albums

Kansas City March / Hard Grind

Scratch 'N Twist

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An Introduction to New York Blues

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100 Rockin' Instrumentals

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Scratch 'n Twist: Rare and Unreissued New York Rhythm & Blues 1956-1962

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The UK Sue Label Story

The Rooster / Cut and Dried

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The Fire/Fury R&B Story

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Hard Grind

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The UK Sue Label Story : The World Of Guy Stevens

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N.Y. Wild Guitars

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Wild Guitar Man

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