Here's Jerry Samuels from 1959. Back then, he was known as Jerry Simms. Most would come to know him best as Napoleon XIV in 1966. By then, Jerry had already established himself as a recording engineer, a producer, and an arranger. But more importantly, for the sake of this Blog, he was a songwriter.Born May 3, 1939, it was at the age of 15 when he wrote his very first song. He was inspired to a musical direction by the talent of Johnnie Ray. That would in turn inspire him to write a song for Johnnie called "To Ev'ry Girl - To Ev'ry Boy (The Meaning Of Love)" in 1954. However, before Johnnie could record it, another songwriter, Sol Parker, was brought into the picture to smooth out the rough edges. But Parker would get credit under his father's monicker (Barry Parker) as he was already established. Johnnie Ray's Summer of '54 Columbia release of the song was enough to inspire a cover of the song on the Coral label by Eileen Todd.
Sometime after October of '54, Jerry came up with a second song for Ray to record, this time again with the help of Parker, and another songwriter, Alan Feiler. The song was called "The Only Girl I'll Ever Love".
A third and final song written by Jerry alone was recorded by Ray in February, 1955, "Ooo! Aah! Oh! (This Is Love)". But this song went unreleased until after Ray's passing in 1990.
