Jimmy Crawford born 18 November 1936

Jimmy Crawford (born Ronald James William Crawford Lindsay, 18 November 1936*) is an English pop music singer. He is best known for his cover version of "I Love How You Love Me" (1961).

Jimmy Crawford was born in Sheffield  He attended Central Technical School on an engineering course and became City, County and National swimming champion and record holder; including British Army champion during 2 years national service. Upon leaving the army at the age of 20 he was employed as an engineering draughtsman at Davy United.

He formed his first band, Ron Lindsay and the Coasters, and played in local clubs, but found chart success as a solo artist. Signed to a recording contract with Columbia, he released "Love or Money" in June 1961. Produced by Frank Barber (who also produced Ricky Valance's "Tell Laura I Love Her”, it spent one week at No. 49 in the UK Singles Chart.

 

His second release garnered his biggest hit. Crawford's cover version of the American hit, "I Love How You Love Me", had originally been recorded by The Paris Sisters. Crawford's effort peaked at No. 18 in November the same year, spending a total of ten weeks in the UK listings.

"I Love How You Love Me" was also a UK chart hit for Maureen Evans in 1964 reaching No. 34, and for Paul and Barry Ryan in 1966 at No. 21. However, Crawford's own version has appeared on many compilation albums in the ensuing years, and numerous on-line marital and romance firms have used his version.

Crawfords third single, "I Shoulda Listened to Mama" was released in May 1962, but failed to reach the chart.  That same year Crawford appeared and sang "Take It Easy" in the film, Play It Cool, also starring Billy Fury andShane Fenton.

He formed Jimmy Crawford and the Ravens, quickly followed by Jimmy Crawford and the Messengers in early 1963. He later joined forces with Jim Ryder to perform as Jimmy Crawford with the Chantelles. Over the years his backing band was variously known as The Jimmy Crawford Four and The Jimmy Crawford Blend.  For over 50 years Crawford was engaged as a professional entertainer, playing every major cabaret venue in the UK and he toured all over the world playing such as Las Vegas, Australia, South Africa and Europe.

More recently, Jimmy has concentrated his creative talents on painting, with several successful exhibitions under his belt, he is now working towards taking his work to a wider audience. Exhibitions of Jimmy's paintings have been displayed in Newcastle, Derby, Shefield and the Cotswolds and in April 2000, his work was featured on the Yorkshire TV programme Calendar.

 

He and his wife Maureen were involved in a serious traffic collision in March 2005, although both eventually recovered from the ordeal. Jimmy retuned to perform on the club circuit.

(Info edited from Wikipedia and jimmycrawford.co.uk blog * which gives year of birth as 1936 and not 1937.)