Jimmy Charles
b. 1942, Paterson, New Jersey, USA. In 1958 16-year-old Charles won the famous amateur talent show at New York's Apollofour weeks in succession. In 1960 he recorded a demo, with backing vocalists the Revellettes, for composer/producer Phil Medley (of Twist & Shout fame) of his song A Million To One. It worked so well that Medley arranged for its release on the newly formed Promo label. This story of teenage love, sung by a young man who sounded like he was barely into his teens, shot into the US Top 10. Charles’ follow-up, Age For Love narrowly missed the Top 40, but none of his other recordings, which included a childlike version of the Christmas classic I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, charted. Charles’ fame was short-lived but his major hit song later charted for Donny Osmond, Brian Hyland and the Five Stairsteps, though none of these versions reached the heights of the original.