Jimmy Scott

Given that Scott's first and only bona fide hit, the ballad "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," was recorded in 1950, you wouldn't expect him to be overburdened with the trappings of success. Still, ever since a quartet of albums in the 90's, Scott has held a special fascination for music cognoscenti and show-business notables. "Jimmy Scott is the only singer who makes me cry," says Madonna, who gave him a cameo spot in one of her videos. Lou Reed had Scott sing backup vocals on a track from his 1991 "Magic and Loss" album. He may well have put the Scott genuflection competition out of reach: "It's like seeing Hamlet or Macbeth all rolled up into a song."

The Lou Reeds and Madonnas of this world are presumably attracted to Scott because he remains, in spite of their pro bono publicity, perhaps the most unjustly ignored American singer of the 20th century. But the appeal of the man David Lynch featured in the final episode of "Twin Peaks" is also about something else. At worst, Scott's newer fans are drawn to a superficial freakishness, the voice that is pitched well up in the conventionally female range and the hairless face, for decades perpetually boyish, that in recent years has taken on the noble, withered aspect of a tortoise. At best, one could imagine certain show-business types, aware of the smoke and mirrors that go into their own celebrityhood, simply wanting to be in the presence of the real thing.

taken from here