Jimmy Ryan is an award-winning American musician, composer, producer, and author with a career that has spanned six decades. Most recently he performed at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to help induct his long-time friend and bandmate, Carly Simon. He and Olivia Rodrigo performed Carly's iconic hit "You're So Vain," which Jimmy recorded with Carly in 1972. In 2019, Jimmy was awarded the prestigious Road Warrior Award by the Nashville Musicians Hall of Fame, and on Sep 3rd, 2023 he will be inducted into the Iowa Rock & Roll Hall of fame and will receive their Lifetime Achievement Award.
Beginning at seventeen, he and his college band, The Critters had their first top forty hit, “Younger Girl” and in the next few years landed three charting albums and two more top forty hits, “Mr. Dieingly Sad” and “Don’t Let The Rain Fall Down on Me.” In the spring, of 1968 Jimmy signed on as bassist for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, touring on Arthur’s #1 hit “Fire.” Jimmy was twenty-two at the time. In 1970, Jimmy’s friend, Carly Simon called him to put a band together for her. She was breaking fast on the US and British top 40 with “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be,” as well as her first album “Carly Simon,” on which Jimmy played guitar. Jimmy went on to perform with Carly on most of her future albums and continues to work off and on with her to this day. Jimmy is featured in the 2018, BBC Special “Classic Albums – Carly Simon: No Secrets.” He was the guitar soloist on many of Carly’s hits, the most memorable being “You’re So Vain,” and the Academy Award-winning song of the year from the movie, Working Girl, “Let The River Run.” Jimmy also appeared in the video of the song. He performed in two HBO specials with Carly, Live From Martha’s Vineyard, and My Romance, as well as playing on the studio recording of the My Romance CD with the legendary conductor and arranger, Marty Paich (father of David Paich of Toto fame).
Also of note is that along with the above, Jimmy found time to perform in the original Broadway production of Hair. He shared the spotlight with two other guitarists from 1968 to 1972. He was also a principal actor and musician in the Broadway production of “Pump Boys and Dinettes.”
During his time working with Carly, he moved to London and recorded with numerous artists including Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, John Entwistle of the Who, Elton John & Kiki Dee, Tommy James, Jimmy Webb, The Doors, Andy Williams, Martha Reeves, and Rod Stewart. Jimmy played guitar on Andy Williams’ #1 Neil Sedaka-penned hit, “Solitaire.” As a studio musician, Jimmy has recorded alongside legendary session players, including Jim Gordon, Jim Keltner, Claus Voorman, Nicky Hopkins, Bobby Keys, Richard Tee, Will Lee, Steve Gadd, Lowell George, Robbie Robertson, Paul Shaffer, Rick Marotta, Tony Levin, Roger Hawkins, Michael Brecker, and David Sanborn. On Carly Simon's sessions, he has recorded/collaborated with major artists including Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Luther Vandross, James Taylor, and many more, earning him six gold and one platinum record/CD. In 1980, Jimmy signed a two-year deal as staff writer for Atlantic Records’ publishing company, Walden Music. During that time, his songs were covered by rock/pop artists, The Association, Irene Kara and Mickey Thomas (lead singer for Jefferson Starship/Elvin Bishop), as well as for pop/country artist, Michael Johnson.
During the times when he wasn’t recording or touring with Carly Simon, nor recording and living in England, Jimmy developed a career scoring music for TV, forming a music production company, Rampage Music New York. During his Rampage years, he created the theme for NBC News, performed by the Utah Symphony. His theme music ran originally in NY, then was adopted nationwide from 2003 to 2010 on many of the local NBC owned and operated stations. In 2005, he wrote theme and background music for all the CNBC financial shows that aired from 6 AM to 6 PM weekdays, on six continents worldwide, many of which are still running to this day. When MSNBC was ready to launch in July 1996, Jimmy was called in to score the nationwide launch campaign.
When not writing news themes, Jimmy wrote music for The Discovery Channel, Lifetime, USA Network, and PBS scoring the Nova movie of the year, The Pluto Files – with Neil deGrasse Tyson. In collaboration with the History Channel, he composed music for major exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, including Deep Ocean Explorers, and Messages from the Graves, documentary music that introduces The Liberty Bell, now playing in Independence Hall, Philadelphia and four exhibition films for the George Washington Museum in Mt. Vernon. Jimmy has also composed, arranged, and produced music for over five-hundred radio and TV commercials for clients including Doritos, McDonalds, IBM, Ford, Nikon, Pizza Hut, Budweiser, Chevy, Mennen, Palmolive, Hess, Hasbro, Downy, Clearasil, Arby’s, Coke, Diet Coke, Modells and more.
In April 2019, Jimmy and his touring band, The Hit Men were honored with the first ever Road Warrior Award from the Nashville Musician’s Hall of Fame, “In recognition of their live performances and countless miles traveled sharing their talent and musical genius with music fans worldwide.”
Shifting from composer to author, in 2023 Jimmy created a memoir, The Superstar Chronicles – Tales of Life Among Rock Royalty, an in-depth look at life with superstars from a very personal perspective. The Superstar Chronicles is intimate, frank and does not hold back on the personal issues that confronted him and those with whom he had the honor to perform on stage and in the studio. He includes previously unpublished pictures from his private collection and tells intriguing stories that have never been in print. The Superstar Chronicles was released on Mar 20, 2023 and is available worldwide at all major booksellers.
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