When Jimmy Scott finally re-emerged in the 1980s, he was pleased to find that a few friends and admirers had been quite unable to forget that extraordinary voice. Most people thought him long dead, but suddenly he was back performing in New York dives - often to a just a handful of fans - Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Ray Charles among them.
Another devotee was songwriter Doc Pomus, who set about trying to secure him a recording contract, even writing an impassioned open-letter to Billboard Magazine. He also introduced Scott to Lou Reed who took him on the road (as did David Byrne) but despite all their frequent testimonies on Scott's behalf, it had no effect on the number-crunching record company executives. They wouldn't even listen. To them, Scott seemed little more than a strange leftover from a long time gone.
But in the end, at his own funeral to be precise, Doc Pomus finally forced the record industry to pay attention to Jimmy Scott. He stipulated in his will that Scott would sing at his funeral and when the sound of Someone Who'll Watch Over Me began to fill the church, the whole congregation was quickly in tears.
The only people smiling were the record company mandarins who thought they'd just made a serious discovery. Scott was signed up immediately and so began the success he now enjoys at the age of 76. His current album, Mood Indigo, has been his most successful to date - coming exactly 50 years after his biggest hit, Everybody's Somebody's Fool, recorded with Lionel Hampton.
"Hey baby, it was quite a surprise," he says, "after working so long to get compositions that will make a mark for you. To have it happen is an enjoyable thing. Fortunately I have a producer, Todd Barkan, and we collaborate very well because we do the numbers that I want to do. He'll get a pile of them and say `just pick up, Jimmy'. Other producers are not interested in what the artist likes to sing. So if I get the opportunity to pick the songs that I like, then of course I put as much as I can into making them happen."
That sort of understanding and respect is rare in the business, and for Scott, it has been near absent throughout a career plagued by contractual and financial disasters. He signed first to the Roost Label and never got paid. He later signed to the Savoy Label, where Herman Lubinsky held him in a suffocating contract and apparently blackballed him whenever he complained. Then, barely making a living, Scott's big break finally seemed to have arrived when Ray Charles invited him to record for his new Tangerine label. Charles oversaw the whole thing, played piano and did his best to reveal the full potential of Jimmy Scott - everything was looking good. Then out pops Herman Lubinsky again, maintaining the singer was still under contract to him and the record was withdrawn from the stores. Two further sessions were recorded for Atlantic Records but again Savoy's lawyers pulled the plug. In the end, Scott himself withdrew and went back to Ohio to work as a shipping clerk at the Cleveland Sheraton Hotel. It took him 20 years to return to what he does best - delivering songs.
"When people listen to a song they want to hear something that embraces them or they want to recognise what the story is all about. And don't think they don't. Many singers think that just because they're singing, hey that's it, people gotta listen. But the listener has to understand something about what the person is singing. If I thought I couldn't perform a song, I'd leave it alone."
There's no doubt some of Jimmy Scott's appeal is in his strangeness. Some are drawn to the "freakishness" of his voice and the oddness of his appearance - all of it down to a childhood condition called Kallman's Syndrome, which inhibites normal development in puberty. It might have been cured simply enough with a few injections, but in those days, the treatment was experimental and his mother refused to allow it.
BUT despite the problems (and there were many), Scott insists that if it hadn't been for his condition, he wouldn't have had such a uniquely ethereal voice. Certainly that voice is cracked a little now (and the endless smoking probably doesn't help) but he still delivers his unique phrasing, dragging so slowly behind the beat in a voice that still is a heartbreaker. Audiences cry at the sound. He has cried himself.
"Well baby, some of the other stories fit your own story. A song like The Thrill is Gone, yeah after you done broke up, the thrill is gone. It can relate to something else too and you can express that either in sorrow or joy. Acting becomes a part of it because you have to sing expressively. If the lyric is a proper story, it deserves to be worked at and to be presented right.
"If I read the story, I sort of know the guy who wrote it and I can imagine his feelings. As of late, there hasn't been too many writers I can think of. But I really love Sammy Cahn, although his work has been overdone. He has made so many artists out there. These songs have longevity and when you hear one of them, oh! People remember them and can relate to them." It's easy to focus on Jimmy Scott as a odd and tragic figure. It's easy to dwell on the androgynous voice, the small frame and the big tux. It's easy to see why Madonna wants him in her video, why David Lynch featured him in that memorable final episode of Twin Peaks, but beyond the exotic strangeness there lies the real reason why Jimmy Scott should be treasured in his later years. He's hip, he's cool and he's the real thing. He is, and always has been, a truly great singer of songs.
"It's a gift. I was rewarded by God. Singers pass messages of love and that's a beautiful thing, baby. Unfortunately some of the fellows that I used to dig, they're not around any more. A couple of the girls have also left since. But now we have a resurgence of singers. There are young singers coming along today and I enjoy listening. Yes, I have admiration for many of the singers today - I don't even remember their names, but it's just that song they might sing - something that makes me relate to their talent. I listen to all sorts of music classical, operatic, the whole bit. Hey, music is music. And if it's done well, it will come over."