James Frederick Rodgers (September 18, 1933 – January 18, 2021) was an American pop singer. Rodgers had a run of hits and mainstream popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. His string of crossover singles ranked highly on the Billboard Pop Singles, Hot Country and Western Sides, and Hot Rhythm and Blues Sides charts; in the 1960s, Rodgers had more modest successes with adult contemporary music.

He was not related to country music pioneer Jimmie C. Rodgers (1897–1933), who died the same year the younger Rodgers was born. Among country audiences, and in his official songwriting credits, the younger Rodgers, Jimmie Frederick, was often credited as Jimmie F. Rodgers to differentiate the two.

On December 1, 1967, Rodgers suffered traumatic head injuries after the car he was driving was stopped by an off-duty police officer near the San Diego Freeway in Los Angeles. He had a fractured skull and required several surgeries.^[23] Initial reports in the newspapers attributed his injuries to a severe beating with a blunt instrument by unknown assailants.^[24] Rodgers had no specific memory of how he had been injured, remembering only that he had seen blindingly bright lights from a car pulling up behind him.^[25]

A few days later, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) stated that off-duty LAPD officer Michael Duffy (at times identified in the press as Richard Duffy) had stopped him for erratic driving, and that Rodgers had stumbled, fallen and hit his head. According to the police version, Duffy then called for assistance from two other officers, and the three of them put the unconscious Rodgers into his car and left the scene.^[26] That account was supported by the treating physicians, who had first blamed the skull fracture on a beating but, by the latter part of December, they concluded that Rodgers had in fact fallen and that had caused his injuries.^[27]

The following month, Rodgers filed an $11 million lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, claiming that the three officers had beaten him.^[28] The police and the L.A. County District Attorney rejected these claims, although the three officers (identified in the press as Michael T. Duffy, 27; Raymond V. Whisman, 29, and Ronald D. Wagner, 32)^[29] were given two-week suspensions for improper procedures in handling the case, particularly their leaving the injured Rodgers alone in his car. (He was later found by a worried friend.)^[30][31] Duffy had had a previous four-day suspension for using unnecessary force; he had used a blackjack on a juvenile.^[30][31]

The three officers and the LA Fire and Police Protective League filed a $13 million slander suit against Rodgers for his public statements accusing them of brutality.^[32]

Neither suit came to trial; the police slander suit was dropped, and in 1973 Rodgers elected to accept a $200,000 settlement from the Los Angeles City Council, which voted to give him the money rather than to incur the costs and risks of further court action.^[33] Rodgers and his supporters still believe that one or more of the police officers beat him, although other observers find the evidence inconclusive.^[34] In his 2010 biography Me, the Mob, and the Music, singer Tommy James wrote that Morris Levy, the Mafia-connected head of Roulette Records, had arranged the attack in response to Rodgers' repeated demands for unpaid royalties he was due by the label. All of Rodgers' most successful singles had been released by Roulette, who were notorious for not paying their artists for their record sales.^[35]

In 1993, Raymond Virgil Whisman, one of the three officers who were alleged to have assaulted Rodgers, was arrested for assaulting his wife and threatening to kill her. The arrest occurred after sheriff's deputies stormed his house after being informed that he was holding his wife at gunpoint. Deputies found 11 rifles, four shotguns, and two handguns in the home. Whisman was charged with two counts of assault and two counts of making terroristic threats.^[36]

In 2010, Rodgers wrote and published his autobiography, Dancing on the Moon: The Jimmie Rodgers Story.^[6]

Rodgers and his first wife Colleen (née McClatchey) divorced in 1970, and she died May 20, 1977.^[37] They had two children, Michael and Michele. He had remarried in 1970, and Jimmie and Trudy Rodgers had two sons, Casey and Logan. He and Trudy divorced in the late 1970s, and he remarried again. Jimmie and Mary Rodgers were still married when he died, and they have a daughter, Katrine, who was born in 1989.

Rodgers suffered from spasmodic dysphonia for a number of years and could hardly sing. After a 2012 concert, he returned home for open heart surgery, following a heart attack he had suffered three weeks earlier.

Rodgers died from kidney disease on January 18, 2021 at the age of 87.^[38]

Rodgers parlayed his singing fame into a brief movie career with lead performances in:

• The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1961)
• Back Door to Hell (1964)

Jimmie sang the song titled "Half Sung Song" in the 1977 comedy film The Billion Dollar Hobo, starring Tim Conway.

TV appearances included performances on American Bandstand, Kraft Music Hall, and Hootenanny, as well as the following:

• Hee Haw — Himself (2 episodes, November 25, 1979 and November 3, 1980)
• The George Burns Show — Himself; Jimmie Rodgers Moves in with Ronnie (1 episode, March 3, 1959). When Jimmie Rodgers moves in with Ronnie, the apartment is suddenly overrun with pretty young groupies, so a jealous Judi turns to George for help.^[39]
• The Mike Douglas Show — Himself (2 episodes, May 15 and May 21, 1970)
• The Merv Griffin Show — Himself (1 episode, May 5, 1970)
• The Andy Williams Show — Himself (1 episode, January 24, 1970)
• House Party, a.k.a. Art Linkletter's House Party — Himself (1 episode, August 24, 1964)
• The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford — Himself (Several appearances, 1959–1960)
• Sunday Showcase, aka NBC Sunday Showcase — The Jimmy Durante Show (1959) — Himself (1 episode, 1959)
• The Steve Allen Show, a.k.a. The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (U.S.: new title) — Himself — Singer (2 episodes, Nos 4.31/4.4 — 1958-1959)
• Toast of the Town, a.k.a. The Ed Sullivan Show — Himself (4 episodes, Nos. 0.50/11.6/11/18/11.36 — 1957-1958)
• The 30th Annual Academy Awards (1958) — Himself — Performer
• Shower of Stars — Himself (1 episode, Comedy Time — 1957)
• The Jimmie Rodgers Show TV Series, a.k.a. Carol Burnett Presents the Jimmie Rodgers Show

In the mid-1960s, he re-recorded (with altered tunes and words referring to the products) two of his best-known songs, for use in television advertisements:

• "Honeycomb" was adapted for a Post Cereals product named "Honeycomb".
• "Oh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again" was adapted for one of Franco-American's pasta products: "Uh-Oh, SpaghettiOs!"^[40]