#871: She Wears My Ring by Jimmy Bell

Peak Month: May 1961
7 weeks on Vancouver’s CKWX chart
Peak Position #4
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Music Vendor Chart ~ #118
YouTube.com: “She Wears My Ring”
Lyrics: “She Wears My Ring”

James Sweenety Jr. was born in Nashville in 1922. He was the second oldest of thirteen children. At 5’8″ James was a gifted football player from a young age and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. After being honorably discharged, he worked as a carpenter. To make some extra cash he became lead singer of a group called The Five Bars. Shortly after, they changed their name to The Varieteers. The quartette appeared in June 1948 on Appointment With Music, an NBC show hosted by Snooky Lanson on the local NBC affiliate in Nashville. On Lanson’s show they sang a 1930’s pop standard, “I’m All Dressed Up With A Broken Heart”. The Varieteers had made a recording of the tune in 1947. In the following years the Varieteers had brushes with success. This included appearing in concert in Hollywood in 1953 with Spanish-American bandleader, Xavier Cugat and singer Abbe Lane. Over his career he recorded as Jimmy Sweeney, Jimmy Bell and Jimmy Destry. Continue reading →