"Jim Dandy" (sometimes known as "Jim Dandy to the Rescue") is a song written by

Lincoln Chase Lincoln R. Chase (June 29, 1926 – October 6, 1980) was an American songwriter and occasional recording artist. As a writer, his most notable songs were "Such a Night", "Jim Dandy (song), Jim Dandy", and several of Shirley Ellis' hits in the ...

, and was first recorded by American R&B singer

LaVern Baker Delores LaVern Baker (November 11, 1929 – March 10, 1997) was an American R&B singer who had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were "Tweedle Dee" (1955), " Jim Dandy" (1956), and "I ...

on December 21, 1955. It reached the top of the R&B chart and #17 on the pop charts in the United States. It was named one of

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...

and was ranked #352 on

Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring survey compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2004 in ...

. The song is about a man (Jim Dandy) who rescues women from improbable or impossible predicaments. It proved popular enough that Chase wrote a second song for Baker entitled "Jim Dandy Got Married." The

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

term jim-dandy for an outstanding person or thing predates the song; first attested in 1844, it may itself come from the title of an old song, "Dandy Jim of Caroline". The

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

solo is by

Sam "The Man" Taylor Samuel Leroy Taylor, Jr. (July 12, 1916 – October 5, 1990), Sam Taylor Biography ''AllMusic'' known as Sam "The Man" Taylor, was an American jazz, rhythm and blues, and blues tenor saxophonist. Taylor was born in Lexington, Tennessee, United St ...

The drummer on the session was veteran

Panama Francis David Albert "Panama" Francis (December 21, 1918 – November 13, 2001) was an American swing jazz drummer who played on numerous hit recordings in the 1950s. Early life Francis was born in Miami, Florida, on December 21, 1918. His father was ...

. The backing vocals are provided by Atlantic's in-house backing group at the time,

the Cues The Cues were an American R&B vocal group, who recorded both under their group name and under various other names as backing singers for artists on Atlantic Records and other labels in the 1950s. They recorded as the Rhythmakers with Ruth Brown ...

(credited as the Gliders), consisting of first tenor Abel DeCosta, second tenor Ollie Jones (formerly of

the Ravens ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

), bass Edward Barnes, and baritone

Winfield Scott Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early s ...

Ann-Margret Ann-Margret Olsson (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish–American actress, singer, and dancer. As an actress and singer, she is credited as Ann-Margret. She is known for her roles in ''Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961), ''State Fair'' (1962), ''B ...

recorded a version on her 1962 album '' The Vivacious One''. The song is the B-side to

James Reyne James Michael Nugent Reyne OAM (born 19 May 1957) is an Australian rock musician and singer-songwriter both in solo work and, until 1986, with the band Australian Crawl. Biography Early years Reyne was born in Lagos, Nigeria. His father, Ro ...

's 1989 single, "

One More River ''One More River'' is a 1934 American drama film mystery directed by James Whale. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and starred Colin Clive, Diana Wynyard and stage actress Mrs Patrick Campbell in one of her very few films. T ...

". The song was featured in the 1972

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his Cinema of Transgression, transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamin ...

film ''

Pink Flamingos ''Pink Flamingos'' is a 1972 American film directed, written, produced, narrated, filmed, and edited by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes ''Female Trouble'' (1974) and ''Desperate Livin ...

''.

Black Oak Arkansas cover

In 1973 the song was covered by

southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. Author Scott B. Bomar speculat ...

band

Black Oak Arkansas Black Oak Arkansas is an American Southern rock band named after the band's hometown of Black Oak, Arkansas. The band reached the height of its fame in the 1970charting ten albums according to Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Their style is punctuated ...

. It hit #25 on the pop chart and featured Jim Mangrum (who had already been using "Jim Dandy" as a stage name before they covered the song) and female vocalist

Ruby Starr A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called s ...

trading off vocals. It was the first single from their 1973 album '' High on the Hog'', the band's most commercially successful album. In Canada, the song reached #13, and was #131 in the year-end top 200. This version of the song was used in the 1993 film '' Dazed and Confused''. A version by the Wright Brothers Band was used in the 1987 film '' Overboard''. In the early-to-mid 2000s, a used car lot called J. D. Byrider produced a version replacing "Jim Dandy" with "JD" to advertise that they would "rescue" buyers with bad credit.

References

1957 singles 1973 singles LaVern Baker songs Songs written by Lincoln Chase 1957 songs Atlantic Records singles Atco Records singles Songs about fictional male characters {{1950s-single-stub