The Mighty Hannibal

As obscure R&B legends go, the Mighty Hannibal remains perhaps the most interesting to grace the stage or airwaves of the 1950s and 1960s. A first cousin of maligned Clinton advisor Vernon Jordan and a flamboyant player all his life, Hannibal's music was as exciting as his life. Born James Shaw he started singing doo wop as an Atlanta teenager, and eventually released a string of moderately successful (and generally highly praised) singles for a variety of independent labels. Shaw's first group, the Overalls in 1954, included future Pips Edward Patten and Merald Knight. His first notable single as a solo performer (1958's "Big Chief Hug-Um an' Kiss-Um") was released under the name Jimmy Shaw on Concept. Other early singles of note include "My Name Is Hannibal" for Pan World, the Jack Nitzsche-penned "The Biggest Cry" (it of course featured a lush string arrangement courtesy of the writer), and the bluesy "I Need a Woman ('Cause I'm a Man)." For a time, Hannibal even recorded for his own Sharob label. But it was his mid-'60s work that put Hannibal (as he was officially known by now) on the map. "Jerkin' the Dog" and "Fishin' Pole" showed the turban-decked one growing measurably in his singing and arranging skills. But it was the prophetic Shurfine hit "Hymn No. 5," a sobering gospel-blues about a black soldier writing home from Vietnam, that Hannibal will perhaps be best known for. Released in 1966, the tune beat the white hippie acts to the punch by at least a year in its anti-war consciousness. But by now, however, Hannibal had developed a serious heroin habit and was spending more time as a pimp than a performer, and wasted much energy trying to sound like the newly funkified James Brown and producing somewhat weaker singles. By 1972, he had kicked heroin for good and...