Ronald James William Crawford Lindsay (18 November 1937 – 24 July 2024), known professionally as Jimmy Crawford, was an English pop music singer. He is best known for his

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of "

I Love How You Love Me "I Love How You Love Me" is a song written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber. It was a 1961 Top Five hit for the pop girl group The Paris Sisters, which inaugurated a string of elaborately produced classic hits by Phil Spector. Bobby Vinton had ...

" (1961).

Life and career

Crawford was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, Yorkshire, England on 18 November 1937. He was educated at the Central Technical School in Sheffield, and later worked as a draughtsman at Davy United. Crawford was a competition swimmer, after learning to overcome his fear of the water during his spell of

National service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

in the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

. Crawford was a contemporary of fellow Sheffield-born singer, Dave Berry. He formed his first band, Ron Lindsay and the Coasters, and played in local

clubs Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Club (magazine), ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands a ...

, but found

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

success as a solo artist. Signed to a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...

with Columbia, he released "Love or Money" in June 1961. It spent one week at No. 49 in the UK Singles Chart. His second release garnered his biggest hit. Crawford's

of the American hit, "

", 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. His third single, "I Shoulda Listened to Mama" was released in May 1962, but failed to reach the chart. In 1962, Crawford sang "Take It Easy" and appeared in the film, '' Play It Cool'', also starring

Billy Fury Ronald Wycherley (17 April 1940 – 28 January 1983), better known by his stage name Billy Fury, was an English musician. An early star of rock and roll, he spent 332 weeks on the UK singles chart. His hit singles include " Wondrous Place", " H ...

and Shane 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. Crawford toured Australia for six months in 1977, with Jim Ryder (guitar), Gary Lawson (keyboards) and Barry Page (drums). He and his wife Maureen were involved in a serious traffic collision in March 2005, although both eventually recovered from the ordeal. Crawford died in

Chesterfield, Derbyshire Chesterfield is a market town, market and industrial town in the county of Derbyshire, England. It is north of Derby and south of Sheffield at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, Rivers Rother and River Hipper, Hipper. In 2011 ...

on 24 July 2024, at the age of 86.

Other versions and appearances

Crawford's recording of "Love or Money", which was produced by Frank Barber (who also produced

Ricky Valance David Spencer (10 April 193612 June 2020), known professionally as Ricky Valance, was a Welsh pop singer. He was best known for the UK number one single " Tell Laura I Love Her", which sold more than a million copies in 1960. He was the first ...

's "

Tell Laura I Love Her "Tell Laura I Love Her" is a teenage tragedy song written by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh. It was a US top ten popular music hit for singer Ray Peterson in 1960 on RCA Victor Records, reaching No. 7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. Late ...

"), appeared on the ''1961 British Hit Parade, Pt. 2: April–September''

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

, along with another version by The Blackwells. "I Love How You Love Me" was also a UK chart hit for

Maureen Evans Maureen Evans (born 23 March 1940, Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh pop singer who achieved fame in the 1950s and 1960s. Career Evans career began as a singer with Waldini's Gypsy Band in the mid-1950s, mainly doing summer seasons at UK holiday re ...

in 1964 reaching No. 34, and for

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

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.

Discography

Chart singles

References

External links