Jimmy Bowen

Jimmy Bowen (born 30 November 1937, Santa Rita, New Mexico is an American record producer and former pop music performer.

Bowen began as a teenage recording star in 1957 with "I'm Stickin' With You," originally the flip side of the hit record "Party Doll" by Buddy Knox, but ultimately a Top 20 recording on its own, peaking at #14 on Billboard's Pop chart. Bowen was a less successful singer than Knox, his partner in the Rhythm Orchids, and ultimately he abandoned a singing career, but stayed in the music industry.

In the early 1960s, in Los Angeles, California, he bucked the 1960s rock phenomenon when Frank Sinatra hired him as a record producer for Reprise Records, and Bowen showed a strong knack for production, getting chart hits for Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr., all regarded as too old-fashioned for the Sixties market.

Leaving Los Angeles for Nashville, Tennessee, Bowen became president of a series of record labels, and took each one to country music preeminence. His philosophy was the same in each case -- find a nascent superstar, and take the star and the label to the top together. His success stories included Hank Williams, Jr., The Oak Ridge Boys, Steve Earle, Reba McEntire, George Strait, and, finally, Garth Brooks. Bowen revolutionized the way music was recorded in Nashville, introducing digital technology and modernizing the way instruments such as drums were recorded and mixed.

Jimmy Bowen is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and holds an MBA with honors from Belmont University.

[Mix Magazine online, Oct 2, 2007 "Jimmy Bowen, Nashville Powerhouse"]