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Go to MonroviaWeekly.com for Monrovia Specific News M O N D AY, M A R C H 8 - M A R C H 14, 2021
V O L U M E 25, N O. 10
FROM MEMPHIS TO THE MOB: The Incredible Journey of a Burbank Teen Idol
BY TERRY MILLER
T
he following is an authentic story about a man named James Oliver Tyler, better known as Jimmy Angel, teen idol. There are 8 million stories in the “Naked City.” Some of them are attentiongrabbing, some gripping and some will simply knock your socks off. However, the story you are about to read will prove beyond any shadowof-a-doubt that Jimmy Angel’s life story is far and away the most compelling you’ve ever heard or read. A long-time friend and colleague, Jerry Brown, told me about this extraordinary chap’s story that, honestly, I didn’t believe initially — that is until I met Jimmy Angel. You’ll see why as you read on. Angel has been all over the world performing and recording 50s and 60s rock music. But when you find out he’s a mere 85 years young and see him on stage, you’ll do a double/triple take. This hep cat moves and gyrates with those decades his junior. Combine this with his rather remarkable, albeit dry, sense of humor and you’ve got some kind of wonderful. Angel was a teen idol in the 1950s who had big gold hit records like “Teenager in Love?” under his belt. Angel’s personality and stage comportment were managed to nudge this musician into music’s limelight and get noticed. Angel has been featured on the cover of thousands of magazines worldwide during his acclaimed career. Complete with the pompadour hairstyle, black Elvis-style shirts you’d not be mistaken to think you may have trav-
Jimmy Angel’s mysterious resemblance to Elvis caught the New York mob’s eye, as well as Pat Boone’s. - Courtesy photo
elled back in time to see the legendary Elvis. The story of Angel’s life is tailor made for an epic film. Oh, there was one? We’ll get to that later. Angel became a protégé of Joe Colombo, a Profaci family enforcers who rose from the ranks to become head of that crime organization in 1962. “Joe Colombo ‘adopted’ me in 1960, and he took care of me,” Angel said. “Without the Colombos, I would have been washing dishes somewhere. I could not read or
write — they saved me. And they made me a teen idol. I can never repay them for what they did for me. Never.” In his late teens, Angel played pro baseball on the New York Yankees farm team, but an injury put that to an abrupt end. Everything changed when Joe Simonetti, a New York talent representative who handled Louis Prima, was out scouting for the next Elvis. It didn’t take long for Simonetti to see the potential in Angel.
“When [Simonetti] found me, I really didn’t want to be a singer. I really wasn’t a singer,” Angel said. “I had my mom to take care of. I wanted to play baseball, and my arm was shot, so there were really no other jobs for me. We all went back to the projects learning how to sing to all the records and then he gave my mom $5,000. Next thing I knew, we were in New York where I made my first record and away we went.” The larger-than-life character that is Angel
now lives in Burbank and recently released an epic CD called “Love Fever” with the celebrated singer’s musicians —Jason Guitierrez on guitar, Sal “Papa Sal” Guitarez on bass and Jon Biggs, a.k.a. “Juan Grande,” on the drums. Angels calls these guys his “Three LA Cats,” his own “Booker T and the MGs.” The CD is a great treat and promising cure for my COVID-19 blues. “It’s all about teamwork, your bandmates are all equal partners too,” Jimmy says referring to Gutierrez.
We sat down with Angel and his band on Thursday, Feb. 25, for a Zoom meeting I’ll never forget. From Elvis, and the birth of rock n roll to assassination attempts, and the New York “mob heartthrob,” created by the once-mobdominated record industry, Angel’s career was set to outshine Elvis’. And then bang, 50 years ago this year his “godfather,” Joe Colombo, was shot. Colombo was shot three times by
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