Ralph Joseph "Jody" Reynolds (December 3, 1932 – November 7, 2008) was an American rock and roll singer, guitarist, and songwriter whose song " Endless Sleep" was a major U.S. top-ten hit in the summer of 1958. His follow-up single, "Fire of Love", peaked at just No. 66 on the ''Billboard'' chart, but the song went on to become a blues-punk classic after being covered by the

MC5 MC5 was an American rock music, rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The classic lineup consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis (bassist), Michael Davis, and drummer ...

and the Gun Club. Reynolds was a regular on the "oldies" circuit and a successful businessman in the U.S. Southwest. Beginning in the 1980s several compilations of his music were issued in the U.S. and Europe, and he enjoyed modest acclaim as a pioneer of

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

music. In 1999, Reynolds was honored with both a Golden Palm Star on the

Palm Springs Walk of Stars The Palm Springs Walk of Stars is a walk of fame in downtown Palm Springs, California, where "Golden Palm Stars", honoring various people who have lived in the greater Palm Springs area, are embedded in the sidewalk pavement. The walk includes p ...

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

, California, and induction into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Life and career

Ralph Joseph Reynolds was born in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States, and was raised in the small town of Shady Grove, Oklahoma. Inspired by

Western Swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...

and artists such as

Bob Wills James Robert "Bob" Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although Spade C ...

, Hank Thompson, and

Eddy Arnold Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer. He was a Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the ''Billboard'' country music charts, second onl ...

, who he heard on the radio, Reynolds took up guitar at age 14. He began playing

in Texas in the mid-1950s after hearing performers such as

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

Carl Perkins Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...

, and

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...

. While performing in San Diego, California, Reynolds met music publisher Herb Montei. Montei rejected several songs offered by Reynolds, but after hearing his composition "Endless Sleep", got him signed to Demon Records and began managing him. Inspired by the haunting sound of Elvis Presley's "

Heartbreak Hotel "Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being g ...

", Reynolds wrote "Endless Sleep" while in

Yuma, Arizona Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 95,548 at the 2020 census, up from the 2010 census population of 93,064. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, Metropolitan ...

for a gig, and played it onstage the same night. Though a proficient guitarist himself, the studio recording of the song featured Al Casey and

Howard Roberts Howard Mancel Roberts (October 2, 1929 – June 28, 1992) was an American jazz guitarist, educator, and session musician. Early life Roberts was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Damon and Vesta Roberts, and began playing guitar at the age of 8 — a ...

on guitars. It had been written solely by Reynolds, but Demon Records credited it to Reynolds and the fictitious "Dolores Nance", to make it appear to have been written by a 'professional' songwriting team. With spooky, reverb-laden vocals, "Endless Sleep" tells the story of a young man desperately searching for his girlfriend, who, after an argument, has flung herself into the ocean. The label persuaded a reluctant Reynolds to change the lyrics to give the song a happy ending. The song reached the No. 5 position on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart on July 7, 1958, sold over one million copies, and inspired a trend of "teen tragedy" songs. Reynolds performed on ''

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'' (AB) is an American Music television, music performance and dance television series that aired in various iterations from 1952 to 1989. It was hosted by Dick Clark who also served as the program's Television producer, pr ...

'' and other TV shows, and was featured on concert tours organized by the disc jockey/promoter

Alan Freed Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout Nor ...

. "Endless Sleep" would later be covered by the Judds,

John Fogerty John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Together with Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and his brother Tom Fogerty, he founded the swamp rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), for which he was th ...

, Nick Lowe and

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;

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had a major hit with it in the UK, and Hank Williams, Jr.'s version was a modest country music chart success. Reynolds' self-penned follow up single, "Fire of Love", became a rock and roll classic years later, after being revived by the

and the Gun Club, but only reached No. 66 on the Billboard chart when released in August 1958, and was his last song to reach the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

. Unlike "Endless Sleep, "Fire of Love" is credited as being co-written by Reynolds, and his first wife, Sonja Sturdivant. Reynolds recorded several more singles, both with Demon and other labels, including duets with

Bobbie Gentry Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter; July 27, 1942) is an American retired singer-songwriter. She was one of the first female artists in the United States to compose and produce her own material. Gentry rose to international fame in 1967 ...

, two songs written by Marty Cooper and

Lee Hazlewood Barton Lee Hazlewood (July 9, 1929 – August 4, 2007) was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960s ...

, and two hot instrumentals released under the name "The Storms" (Reynolds' backing band). By the mid-1960s he had settled in Palm Springs, where he focused on raising a family and working as a

realtor Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agent ...

; however, he retained his lifelong love of music, writing and recording songs in a small home studio, occasionally performing in "oldies" shows, and opening a music store. Col. Tom Parker,

's manager, signed Reynolds to his Boxcar Publishing Co., thinking Presley might be interested in some of his songs, though Presley died in 1977 before recording any of them. Reynolds included one of the songs he had written for Presley, "Yesterday and Today", on a 1978 album. Starting in the late 1970s, "Endless Sleep" and other of Reynolds' songs were re-released in Europe and America; the rockabilly revival beginning in the mid-1970s (Hank Mizell's "Jungle Rock" hit the UK top ten in 1976) saw a further increase of interest in his music. Reynolds died of

liver cancer Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...

on November 7, 2008, in Palm Desert, California, at age 75. He was survived by Judy, his wife of 47 years, daughters Malinda and Marla, son Mark and granddaughter Desiree.

Recordings

* Demon Records ** 1507 " Endless Sleep" / "Tight Capris" – March 1958 ** 1509 "Fire of Love" / "Daisy Mae" – July 1958 ** 1511 "Closin' In" / "Elope With Me" – November 1958 ** 1515 "Golden Idol" / "Beaulah Lee" – March 1959 ** 1519 "The Storm" / "Please Remember Me" – August 1959 ** 1523 "The Whipping Post" / "I Wanna Be With You Tonight" – April 1960 ** 1524 "Stone Cold" / "(The Girl With The) Raven Hair" – June 1960 * Sundown Records ** 114 "Thunder" / "Tarantula" – January 1959 * Indigo Records ** 127 "Thunder" / "Tarantula" – August 1961 * Emmy Records ** 1011 "Dusty Skies" / "Brandy" 1962 * Smash Records ** 1810 "Don't Jump" / "Stormy" – February 1963 * Brent Records ** 7042 "The Girl From King Marie" / "Raggedy Ann" – April 1963 * Titan Records ** 1734 "A Tear For Jesse" / "Devil Girl" – 1965 ** 1736 "Stranger in the Mirror" / "Requiem For Love" (with

) – 1965 * Pulsar Records ** 2419 "Endless Sleep" / "My Baby's Eyes" – 1969 * Gusto Records ** 0026 "Endless Sleep" / nknown1976 * Tru Gems Records ** LP 1002 ''Endless Sleep'' 1978 * Gee Dee Music ** 270106 ''Endless Sleep'' (CD) (Germany, 1994) ** 270142 ''Endless Sleep'' (CD) (Germany, 1998) * Ace Records LTD ** CDCHD 1474 - The Complete Demon & Titan Masters (England, 2016)

References

External links

Jody Reynolds

Jody Reynolds - The Complete Demon & Titan Masters - Ace Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, Jody 1932 births 2008 deaths Deaths from liver cancer in California Musicians from Denver People from McIntosh County, Oklahoma Apex Records artists Smash Records artists 20th-century American musicians