Legendary British session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan has died, aged 71. Jim started his career playing for Marty Wilde as one of his backing band, The Wildcats. He then went on to become one of the most prolific and sought-after session musicians of the 60s and 70s in the UK, having played on over 1,000 hit songs. In fact, he was so popular that another popular session guitarist was known as Little Jim to avoid confusion - and that guitarist was Jimmy Page! Actually, they were two of the most prolific session guitarists - the third being Vic Flick (main guitar on the James Bond theme). He was even around for a number of British firsts, including owning the first Les Paul to be played in the UK and playing on the first British records to feature the Fuzzbox and the Wah Wah pedal, and was an innovator of the Talk Box. He was one of the guitarists who frequented a certain music shop in London owned by a drum tutor. Unimpressed with the amplification available to guitarists, they complained to the shop owner that amplifiers did not suit their needs. The shop owner sat up and took notice - he was Jim Marshall. Some of the most well-known hits that Sullivan played on are The James Bond theme, Gerry and the Pacemakers' Ferry Cross the Mersey, The Small Faces' Itchycoo Park, Jet Harris' Diamonds, Cilla Black's Anyone Who Had a Heart, Tom Jones' It's Not Unusual and Green, Green Grass of Home, Dusty Springfield's You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Engelbert Humperdinck's Release Me, Sandie Shaw's Puppet on a String, Middle of the Road's Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, The New Seekers' I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing and Bennie Hill's Ernie. After his heyday as a session musician, he spent nine years as part of the James Last Orchestra before composing music for film and jingles! If that's not enough, he was also resident guitarist on Top of the Pops, Ready Steady Go!, Thank Your Lucky Stars and Saturday Club. Oh, and he was friends with Elvis! RIP Jim - a true legend. Thanks for so much great music! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN8T7rsMoyQ
