Music
Jimmy Work
1924–2018 · country singer, songwriter
Honky-tonk songwriter of “Making Believe” who launched his professional career in Pontiac, where Southern migrants working in the auto plants formed a ready audience.
- Born
Akron, Ohio- Died
aged 94- Detroit years
- 1945–about 1950
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born in Akron and raised in Dukedom, Tennessee, Jimmy Work was playing guitar at seven and writing songs as a teenager. By 1945 he was working as a professional musician in Pontiac, one of the Michigan factory towns filled with Southerners who had come north for automotive jobs. He sang on local radio, published a songbook and cut his first singles for small labels there; one of them, “Tennessee Border,” became a hit for Red Foley and others and was also recorded by Hank Williams. That success brought a Decca contract in 1949 and an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. His own breakthrough came in 1955 on Dot with “Making Believe,” later a standard covered by Kitty Wells, Emmylou Harris and Social Distortion, and “That's What Makes the Jukebox Play.” He later left music for real estate; Bear Family reissued his recordings from 1986.
Highlights
- Began his professional career in Pontiac, Michigan (1945)
- Wrote “Tennessee Border,” a 1949 hit for Red Foley
- Wrote and recorded the country standard “Making Believe” (1955)
- Played several concerts with Elvis Presley in 1955