Grand Ole Opry Legend Little Jimmy Dickens Dead at 94

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Rolling Stone



Longtime Grand Ole Opry star Little Jimmy Dickens, as easily recognized for his rhinestone-studded stage costumes as for his diminutive stature, has died of cardiac arrest. Dickens, who turned 94 on December 19th, was admitted to a Nashville-area hospital on Christmas Day after suffering a stroke. He last performed at the Opry on December 20th as part of his birthday celebration.

The country singer was best known for such novelty hits as "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" and "Take an Old Cold Tater (and Wait)," the latter of which inspired fellow Opry member Hank Williams to nickname him "Tater." Younger country fans, meanwhile, have recognized the 4-foot-11 singer for his appearances in several videos by Brad Paisley, who during his teenage years opened several shows for the country legend.

James Cecil Dickens was the oldest of 13 children born to a farmer in the coal-camp community of Bolt, West Virginia. He began his career in radio while studying at West Virginia University. He would walk several miles to and from the nearby town of Beckley, where he would open a morning broadcast on WJLS by imitating the crow of a rooster. Signed to Columbia Records in 1948, Dickens was first invited to perform on the Opry by Roy Acuff. Early hits for the singer included "Country Boy," "A-Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed," "My Heart's Bouquet" and "Hillbilly Fever," all of which hit the Top 10 between 1949 and 1950. In addition to 13 trips to Europe, Dickens twice entertained the troops in Vietnam, and in 1964, became the first country artist to completely circle the globe on a world tour. His 1965 hit, "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose," topped the country chart for two weeks and also reached Number 15 on the pop chart. The success of that single led to his appearance of a number of network TV series, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. It was, in fact, Carson's famous comedic putdowns that inspired "Bird of Paradise" songwriter Neal Merritt to pen the tune (in 20 minutes).

Other hits throughout Dickens' career included "Out Behind the Barn" and his signature song, "I'm Little But I'm Loud." In 1997, Martina McBride included a snippet of a performance of that song, recorded live when she was seven years old, on her album, Evolution. The self-depricating entertainer often joked about his size on stage saying that he was "Willie Nelson after taxes." He also participated in a series of comic bits with CMA Awards show co-hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, including a scene-stealing Kanye West-inspired bit in 2009 and a 2011 role in the show as "Little Justin Bieber."



Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/grand-ole-opry-legend-little-jimmy-dickens-dead-at-94-20150102

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[kyburbonkid]

1. What a magical entertainer

Wow, talk about a flash from the past. I was 19 dating this 18 Yr old girl in tiny old Garden City Kansas and we went to this pub for a little music an drink. Little Jimmy Dickens was playing and we just absolutely had a blast. My girl friend an I slipped out back to do a little necking, and our came Jimmy Dickens for a little break. We talked and chatted an he said something about love among young people was such a cool thing. In his next set he did a couple of songs in honor of us. We danced all night. Little Jimmy Dickens was one cool dude.

[ripcord]

2. RIP

[mainstreetonce]

3. RIP

I loved the videos he made with Brad.

[Hoppy]

4. When I was a rug-rat, there was a radio station in Newark, NJ that played country music.. Waat.

I recall listening to Tex Ritter, Bing Crosby (yes, he did western songs), Sons of the Pioneers, T. Texas Tyler, Gene Autry, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Elton Britt

and of course, Little Jimmy Dickens.

God, I sure miss that station.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. We are of the same generation, I believe.

I remember hearing The Grand Ole Opry on ...shortwave! My family lived in a lot of rural places, and on clear nights the shortwave would pick up east Coast
stations, the kind of stuff we usually did not hear on the West Coast.
Anyhow, heard a lot of country tunes when I was growing up in the 50's, and heard Dickens.

Now it is called "classic" Western music, the old stuff, and luckily it can be heard from a lot of sources.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. Are you sure that wasn't WSM?

Clear channel, 50,000 watts. That will go a long way.

WSM

Bonus: it has a Blaw-Knox tower.

More about Blaw-Knox towers: Blaw-Knox Diamond Radio Towers

Back to Little Jimmy Dickens: I had heard over the holidays (on the radio, of course) that he was in the hospital. 94 years is a long time.

[Hoppy]

11. No. It was WAAT. The station was on Broad Street in Newark.

My mother took me to it to see the broadcast studio and the DJ, Don Larkin, "This is Larkin Barkin'"

The stage for "Western" or "Cowboy" music was the Coral Lounge in Paterson. Top acts performed there. My parents went to see Elton Britt at the lounge. Unfortunately, he was into late stages of alcoholism and gave a crappy performance which was combined with insults to the audience.

We also received WWDA in Wheeling W.V. with their hayride. On rare nights, we could barely catch the Opry.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Dunno what station....I was too young to notice anything but the music.

I have since learned about the powerful radio stations, here and across the border in Mexico, back in the day.

Saw Pirate Radio a couple years back, to add to the history.

[Thinkingabout]

5. Grand memories hearing Little Jimmy Dickens and had the pleasure of seeing him perform at the

Grand Old Opry. Peaceful memories.

[SoapBox]

6. Oh no!

I'm so sad.

RIP Little Jimmy.

[PDittie]

7. May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose

I can still hear my Dad singing it and laughing. We lost him just two years ago so that's a fond memory.

I was so young at the time that the funny part to me was a bird flying up someone's nose. It was years later that I learned a bird of paradise was a plant, and I finally got the full effect of the joke. I'm also pretty sure my Dad used the phrase as a toss-off insult a couple of times.

I've played the video in the OP about six times now. I think there's some smoke got in my eye...

[Kingofalldems]

9. RIP Jimmy.

In that video it looks like Porter Wagoner on guitar.

[jamesatemple]

13. The little fellow entertained a lot of us for a very long time.

Marty Robbins was a small man and played a 3/4 size guitar. But Little Jimmy was much smaller and was often seen playing his huge Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar in many of his performances. It was nearly as big as he was. Though mostly known to his admiring public for his "specialty" songs, around the Nashville musicians he was recognized as one of the best ballad singers. This is one of my favorite ballads: