Jerry Jaye born 19 October 1937

Jerry Jaye (born October 19, 1937) is an American country and rockabilly singer. 

Gerald Jaye Hatley was born in Manila, Arkensas and grew up on a sharecropper's farm. He sold garden seeds to buy his first guitar, and his fascination with music led him to take up a job with KBIB in Monette, Arkansas where he formed a rock ‘n’ roll band. In 1954, Jerry joined the US Navy for four years and on his demobilisation vowed that he would not return to the cotton fields. 

When he arrived back home, he set about playing music for a living once more. Linking up with Tommy Baker on bass and Carl Fry on drums and featuring himself on guitar and Vocals, the trio soon built up a strong local reputation playing an eclectic mixture of rock ‘n’ roll, R&B and country. Joe Thompson (a disc jockey at station KBIB in Monette, Arkansas) suggested that they cut a single Sugar Dumplin’ for local airplay. 

Joe was acquainted with Roland Janes and made arrangements for the combo to drive up to Memphis in late 1966 to cut some sides at Roland’s Sonic Studio. The group cut two tunes - the Mickey Newbury song ‘Five Miles From Home’ as the intended A-side together with a tune that was proving popular on live appearances and which they knew as ‘Hello Josephine’.  Jaye released it on his own label, Connie Records. 500 copies of the single were pressed on the Connie label, still bearing the title ‘Hello Josephine’, and when these had very quickly nearly sold out, Jerry took 25 copies of the disc to Joe Cuoghi who, apart from running Hi Records, owned Popular Tunes (the leading record store in Memphis), from where he operated a jukebox supply service. These were passed out to various radio stations including Hal Smith on WHBQ, Memphis, who played it to death, which in turn sent Joe Cuoghi of Hi Records scurrying to his car in search of Jerry. 

                             

Soon ownership of the single passed to Hi Records in return for a contract as a Hi recording artist. ‘My Girl Josephine’ was re-released on Hi in late February 1967, and it hit the national charts in April, reaching No.29. Fats Domino was delighted and sent along more of his own compositions for future consideration. Jaye decided that he had a winning formula and cut ‘Let The Four Winds Blow’ for a follow-up. Despite good promotion that included appearances on top television shows such as Shindig and the record failed to make it's expected impact and only made the lower reaches of the hot hundred. Subsequent follow-ups flopped .The final single before this phase of Jaye’s contract with Hi Records expired was ‘Never Going Back’ / ‘You Got To Go’ in 1969. 

Jerry's contract with Hi ended in 1970, shortly after Joe Cuoghi died and whilst negotiating another record deal, he and his band (now known as The Jaywalkers) entered the studio to record The album ‘Souvenir Album Of Most Requested Songs’, which was released on the Bejay label. In 1971, Jaye signeding with the Nashville based Mega/Raintree organisation. Jaye recorded prolifically for the next four years for the Mega/Raintree group, including the unreleased Rick Nelson inspired ‘I Wanna Put On My Boogie Shoes’, and a total of seven singles were issued. These all made an impact on the lower reaches of the country charts. 

At Mega, Jerry was produced by Larry Rogers, Brother of Kenny. When Larry Rogers signed a production deal with Columbia, Jerry went with him, but only one single was issued. The top side, a revival Tommy Edward’s ‘It’s All In The Game’ enjoyed healthy sales when released in 1975 and the portent for future releases looked good. The record reached No.51 on the Billboard charts. 

Nick Pesce, who had become president of Hi Records after the death of Joe Cuoghi, approached Jerry in 1976 with a view to his returning to the label. The resulting product was the rockabilly orientated ‘Honky Tonk Women Love Redneck Men’ which received good promotion and made No.32 on the Country chart. An album with the same title was released.Follow-ups ‘Hot And Still Heating’ and ‘When Morning Comes To Memphis’ secured chart placings . Jaye cut various sessions over the next two years recording material which he describes as full of hit potential but nothing was released. Becoming disenchanted, Jerry sought and obtained a release from his contract in 1979.

In 1980, he and his wife Darlene were booked into a series of dates along the Mississippi coast and enjoyed the area so much that they re-located there and have remained to this day. 

Apart from releasing an album and single with his wife on the Bejay label in 1984 to promote their residency at the Kings Club. In 1995 Jerry played his first overseas date in Sweden, that was followed the same year by a series of shows in the UK. He released his album One More time in 2005.

 (Edited from Rocky 52)