Jimbeau Hinson

Jimbeau Hinson (born James L. Hinson Jr. circa 1952 in Mississippi) is an American country music singer-songwriter. Hinson, along with co-writer Roy August, wrote the 1981 #1 Hot Country Songs hit, "Fancy Free", for The Oak Ridge Boys' album, Fancy Free (1981). The album was also a #1 on the Top Country Album chart and peaked at #14 on the Billboard 200. In 2010, "Fancy Free" attained the BMI 2 Million Spins Award, with over 13 years of aggregate broadcast time. Hinson has written country hits for a number of artists, The Oak Ridge Boys, David Lee Murphy, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Brenda Lee, John Conlee, Steve Earle. Additional, artists who have recorded his songs include: Reba McEntire, Lynn Anderson, and Carol Channing.Hinson has been performing country music since his teenage years in the late 1960s and began going by the name Jimbeau Hinson in the mid 1970s, to avoid any confusion with Muppets creator Jim Henson. Hinson signed a writing contract with The Wilburn Brothers publishing company at age seventeen and later recorded several singles for Chart Records. During the late 1970s, Hinson began a long-running relationship with The Oak Ridge Boys as a songwriter and assisted with the operations of their publishing company. In the late 1980s he was a contestant on Star Search. Hinson released his first album as an artist, Strong Medicine, on Wrinkled Records in 2013. Hinson is openly bisexual although he has been in a monogamous relationship with his wife Brenda since the 1980s. Hinson was diagnosed as HIV Positive in 1985.