Big Bad John,” a talking ballad written and recited by a tall drink of water from the Texas Panhandle, stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 40 for the week of Dec. 4, 1961. Jimmy Ray Dean was born in ...
Dean founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company in 1969, and he appeared in its TV ads for many years, even after the Sara Lee Corporation bought Dean’s company and took over its management in 1984.