Jimmy Riddle
Jimmy Riddle | |
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| Born | September 3, 1918 |
| Died | December 10, 1982 (aged 64) |
| Occupation(s) | musician, television performer |
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (February 2008) |
James Lawrence Riddle (September 3, 1918 – December 10, 1982) was an American country musician and multi-instrumentalist best known for his appearances on the country music and comedy television show Hee Haw. He was primarily known for the vocal art of eefing.
Biography[edit]
Riddle was born in Dyersburg, Tennessee and got into show business in Memphis, Tennessee at age 16 by passing the hat in a local beer joint. He moved to Texas in 1939 where he later met Roy Acuff. He joined Acuff's Smokey Mountain Boys group in 1943 and became a regular member of the band. playing harmonica, piano, and accordion, until his death.
Riddle was a featured performer on Hee Haw in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One day in 1970 he and guitarist Jackie Phelps were fooling around backstage, Phelps doing the rhythmic knee-slapping known as hambone while Riddle eefed. Co-star Junior Samples was so impressed he encouraged the two to perform the routine for the producers. "The Hambone Brothers" became a semi-regular feature of the show. In the early 1980s Riddle joined Boxcar Willie's touring band, playing the harmonica solos, but remained in Acuff's band on the Opry.[citation needed]
Riddle is commemorated in Cockney rhyming slang: to go for a Jimmy Riddle is to urinate or piddle.[1]
Riddle died of cancer in Nashville in 1982, aged 64.
References[edit]
- ^ Willey, Russ (2009), "Jimmy (Riddle)", Brewer's Dictionary of London Phrase & Fable, Chambers Harrap Publishers, doi:10.1093/acref/9780199916214.001.0001, retrieved 2023-09-02
External links[edit]
- Biography at Hee Haw
- Sharpe, Jennifer (March 13, 2006). "Jimmie Riddle and the Lost Art of Eephing". National Public Radio. Retrieved March 20, 2006.
- Jimmy Riddle at IMDb
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