Passion Project

Jimmy Scott’s If You Only Knew

By John Hagelston

No one who hears Jimmy Scott’s haunting voice will ever forget it. The man’s life story is as remarkable as his singing, and is the subject of If You Only Knew, which Rhino Home Video is now releasing on DVD. Jimmy’s resilience in the face of devastating setbacks has inspired countless fans, including several here at Rhino, making the DVD a true “passion project.”

At age 12, Jimmy Scott was diagnosed with Kallman’s Syndrome, a hereditary condition that kept his body – and his now-distinctive voice – from growing beyond boyhood. Shortly thereafter, Scott’s mother died in an accident, and Jimmy and his siblings were split up among foster homes. Jimmy traveled to New York to pursue his dreams of jazz stardom but the vagaries of the record business intervened, denying him a chance at the spotlight. He left music for years until the mid-1980s, when he sang at his friend Doc Pomus’ funeral and was rediscovered. If You Only Knew details both Jimmy’s rollercoaster ride through the jazz world and his life-long effort to reunite his family.

Rhino sound engineer Randy Perry didn’t know any of this when he first began working with the film’s producers several years ago. Randy had gone to the North Carolina School Of The Arts with Matthew Buzzell, who was there studying acting and directing while Randy was studying sound design. Later in L.A. their paths crossed again at Tree Media, which was creating brief interview segments for the Internet with artists and musicians like Daniel Johnston and Luna. Buzzell was a longtime fan of Jimmy Scott (and had actually interviewed him previously), so Jimmy was a natural for one of these short subjects – available as a bonus on our DVD. Randy was doing the sound for these, and as often happens in production, was supplied the audio recording before he got the visuals to synch it to. “I was unaware of Jimmy’s background,” Randy recalls, “and from the sound of the voice alone, I couldn’t even tell that it was a man singing. When I got to see as well as hear him, I was blown away!”

As the material out there on Jimmy Scott was rather skimpy, Buzzell and Tree Media owner Brian Gerber (who signed on as producer) started shopping around a feature on Jimmy for the indie film festival circuit, and naturally Randy was put to work on the movie. As sound designer, he was responsible for all audio production once the interviews and performances had been recorded. Most of Jimmy’s concerts were taped during a tour of Japan, but some were done at The Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, where Randy personally supervised the recording. He mixed the music, cleaned up the dialogue track, and polished the final output. The dialogue, in particular was a challenge. Footage was shot over the course of a year and the interviews were taped during the rare times when Scott wasn’t on the road. “Jimmy and some of his older colleagues and family members tend to speak softy and indistinctly, so I had to adjust the sound accordingly,” notes Randy “Also, several interviews were conducted at Jimmy’s house in Cleveland, where most of his furniture had a protective vinyl covering -- that would produce loud squeaks at the slightest movement!”

Given the high cost of licensing the many standards sung in the movie, distribution was difficult, but If You Only Knew played at festivals for nearly a year before its “official” premiere late in 2003 at L.A.’s Egyptian Theater. The Egyptian showing sold out and more than 200 people had to be turned away. Everyone from the cast and crew were there along with a very enthusiastic audience when, five minutes into the screening, the video projector died. Not one to be easily defeated, Jimmy went to a piano in the theater and, to the crowd’s delight, sang several songs. The film was rescheduled and sold out a second time.

Though there was strong interest from Sundance and the Independent Film Channel for their cable properties, in the end the best deal was with the Public Broadcasting System. PBS added an intro with actor Don Cheadle and premiered it in February of last year on their Independent Lens showcase. Normally either one hour or two, PBS liked If You Only Knew so much that they left its 1 hour-20 minute running time intact.

Frequently during the production of the film, Randy discussed the project with various Rhinos, among them James Austin in our A&R department. At Matthew Buzzell’s suggestion, Randy bent James’ ear about Falling In Love Is Wonderful, an album Jimmy recorded in 1963 for Ray Charles’ Tangerine label -- which Rhino now controlled. Eventually he was able to make the case for it to be issued on the Rhino Handmade label. “One of the things I’m proudest of,” says Randy, “is that this film helped get that ‘lost’ album reissued. When its release was abandoned all those years ago, Jimmy was very hurt by it, and now people can finally get to hear him in his prime.”

Randy also spread the word to Robin Hurley and Sofia Fields in Rhino Home Video that the filmmakers were looking for a DVD deal. Given that several of Jimmy’s recordings fell under our purview (in addition to Falling In Love, there’s Rhino’s collection of vintage sides, Lost And Found, and a trio of acclaimed ‘90s albums for Sire and Warner Bros.), it made sense for us to do the DVD as well. If You Only Knew is just the kind of labor of musical love that we’ve became known for. “This is a remarkably beautiful, graceful, and well-made film,” notes Robin. “It is not a ‘blockbuster’ title, but it is a film of great artistic value, and the kind of film that is essential to include in Rhino’s growing DVD catalog. The film has already won several awards, including the Audience Awards at the 2002 Atlanta Film Festival and the 2003 Film Fest DC, and I am confident that the DVD release will result in significant praise from the media.”

Based on the interest in the movie and our Handmade release, it’s clear there is an audience for this disc – when PBS aired the film, their message boards were flooded with inquiries asking if it was available on DVD. So pick up If You Only Knew and see the man The New York Times has called “the most unjustly ignored American singer of the 20th century.”