Garnet Mimms
| Garnet Mimms | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Garrett Mimms |
| Born |
November 16, 1933 Ashland, West Virginia, United States |
| Genres | Soul, rhythm & blues |
| Years active | 1953–1972, 1977-78, 2007 |
| Labels | United Artists, Veep, Verve, GSF, Arista, Evidence |
| Associated acts | The Norfolk Four, The Gainors, The Enchanters |
Garnet Mimms (born Garrett Mimms, November 16, 1933) is an American singer, influential in soul music and rhythm and blues. He first achieved success as the lead singer of Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters, and is best known for the 1963 hit "Cry Baby", later recorded by Janis Joplin. According to Steve Huey at AllMusic, his "pleading, gospel-derived intensity made him one of the earliest true soul singers [and] his legacy remains criminally underappreciated."
Born in Ashland, West Virginia, Mimms grew up in Philadelphia, where he sang in church choirs and in gospel groups such as the Evening Stars and the Harmonizing Four. He first recorded as a member of the Norfolk Four, for Savoy Records in 1953. He returned to Philadelphia after serving in the military and, after a spell in a doo-wop group, the Deltones, formed another group, the Gainors, in 1958, with Sam Bell, Willie Combo, John Jefferson, and Howard Tate. The Gainors recorded several singles over the next few years for the Red Top, Mercury and Talley Ho labels, but failed to have any chart success. Mimms and Bell left the group in 1961, and joined with Charles Boyer and Zola Pearnell to form Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters.
The group moved from Philadelphia to New York in 1963, and began to work with the songwriter and record producer Bert Berns, who signed them to the United Artists label and teamed them with fellow songwriter and producer Jerry Ragovoy. Dominic Turner wrote that "the partnership between the Enchanters on the one hand and Ragovoy and Berns on the other was very much an experiment in applying Mimms' gospel and deep soul roots to the new uptown soul in vogue in New York." The new team had an immediate hit with "Cry Baby", written by Berns and Ragovoy, and with uncredited vocal backing by the Gospelaires, featuring Dionne Warwick, Dee Dee Warwick, and Estelle Brown. The song topped the R&B chart and went to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The group followed it up with "For Your Precious Love," a cover of Jerry Butler and the Impressions' original, which hit the Billboard Top 30 later that year, as did the flip side, "Baby Don't You Weep." Another hit recording with the Enchanters, "A Quiet Place", became a popular song among the Carolina beach music community.
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