Jimi Jamison

Jimmy Wayne Jamison (August 23, 1951 – August 31, 2014) was an American singer. Best known as Jimi Jamison, he earned recognition as the frontman for the rock bands Target, Cobra, and Survivor from 1984 to 1988, performing the songs "Burning Heart" from the film Rocky IV (1985) and "The Moment of Truth" from The Karate Kid (1984), along with other top-20 Survivor hits "I Can't Hold Back", "High On You", "The Search Is Over", and "Is This Love". He officially rejoined Survivor from 2000, until 2006, and rejoined again in 2011. Acclaimed for his vocal abilities, Jamison is also known for having co-written and performed the theme song "I'm Always Here" for the 1990s TV series Baywatch.

Jimmy Wayne Jamison was born in rural Durant, Mississippi, but liked to think of himself as a Memphis, Tennessee, native, as he and his mother Dorothy moved there when he was one day old. In his teens, growing up in blues-rock and soul music, he taught himself how to play the guitar and piano. The first song Jimi ever performed in front of a crowd was "Day Tripper" by The Beatles, while he was in middle school (Sherwood) in the mid-1960s.

Jimi began playing in an R&B band called The Debuts. It was to be Jamison's first taste of success, and he was only 12 years old at the time. While students at Messick High School, the band had a hit with their first single, the Wayne Carson-penned "If I Cry" in 1968. It was a song originally intended for fellow Memphis band The Box Tops, but the group discarded the tune before recording it; Box Tops frontman Alex Chilton gave it to The Debuts instead. The band was picked up and signed by Atlantic Records. Soon the teenagers hit the road with the likes of Roy Orbison and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, also touring with The Buckinghams. The band broke up in 1969, but Jimi and Rowell continued playing together years later before going their separate ways. Meanwhile, Jamison became part of a self-contained group of musicians (including Tommy Cathey) recording with local keyboardist David Beaver; Jamison features prominently as lead vocalist on the 1973 album, Combinations (credited to D. Beaver).

After the second session's recording with David Beaver, both Jamison and Cathey teamed up with guitarist Buddy Davis and formed the Memphis southern rock band Target in the mid 1970s. The band started and became a local arena band playing live constantly building up their reputation. Having success, the band released the albums Target (1976) and Captured (1977) on A&M Records with the singles "Are you Ready", "Let Me Live" and "It is Only Love", opening concerts for Black Sabbath, Boston, and Kiss.

In 1982, Jamison joined guitarist Mandy Meyer (ex-Krokus), guitarist/keyboardist Jack Holder (ex-Black Oak Arkansas), bassist Tommy Keiser, and drummer Jeff Klaven in the band Cobra, managed by Butch Stone (who also managed Target as well as Krokus and Black Oak Arkansas), replacing original vocalist Tommy Andris. The band became a hit in the Memphis scene and signed with Epic Records. The group released one album, the Tom Allom-produced First Strike, in 1983. The British music magazine Kerrang! listed the album at number one in its import charts with the song "Blood On Your Money" getting MTV airplay, being Jamison's first music video.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.