Background and career
Jimmy Wayne Jamison (August 23, 1951 – August 31, 2014) was an American singer. Best known as Jimi Jamison, he earned recognition as the frontman for the rock bands Target, Cobra, and Survivor from 1984 to 1988, performing the songs "Burning Heart" from the film Rocky IV (1985) and "The Moment of Truth" from The Karate Kid (1984), along with other top-20 Survivor hits "I Can't Hold Back", "High On You", "The Search Is Over", and "Is This Love". He officially rejoined Survivor from 2000, until 2006, and rejoined again in 2011. Acclaimed for his vocal abilities, Jamison is also known for having co-written and performed the theme song "I'm Always Here" for the 1990s TV series Baywatch.
Jimmy Wayne Jamison was born in rural Durant, Mississippi, but liked to think of himself as a Memphis, Tennessee, native, as he and his mother Dorothy moved there when he was one day old. In his teens, growing up in blues-rock and soul music, he taught himself how to play the guitar and piano. The first song Jimi ever performed in front of a crowd was "Day Tripper" by The Beatles, while he was in middle school (Sherwood) in the mid-1960s.
Jimi began playing in an R&B band called The Debuts. It was to be Jamison's first taste of success, and he was only 12 years old at the time. While students at Messick High School, the band had a hit with their first single, the Wayne Carson-penned "If I Cry" in 1968. It was a song originally intended for fellow Memphis band The Box Tops, but the group discarded the tune before recording it; Box Tops frontman Alex Chilton gave it to The Debuts instead. The band was picked up and signed by Atlantic Records. Soon the teenagers hit the road with the likes of Roy Orbison and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, also touring with The Buckinghams. The band broke up in 1969, but Jimi and Rowell continued playing together years later before going their separate ways. Meanwhile, Jamison became part of a self-contained group of musicians (including Tommy Cathey) recording with local keyboardist David Beaver; Jamison features prominently as lead vocalist on the 1973 album, Combinations (credited to D. Beaver).
After the second session's recording with David Beaver, both Jamison and Cathey teamed up with guitarist Buddy Davis and formed the Memphis southern rock band Target in the mid 1970s. The band started and became a local arena band playing live constantly building up their reputation. Having success, the band released the albums Target (1976) and Captured (1977) on A&M Records with the singles "Are you Ready", "Let Me Live" and "It is Only Love", opening concerts for Black Sabbath, Boston, and Kiss.
In 1982, Jamison joined guitarist Mandy Meyer (ex-Krokus), guitarist/keyboardist Jack Holder (ex-Black Oak Arkansas), bassist Tommy Keiser, and drummer Jeff Klaven in the band Cobra, managed by Butch Stone (who also managed Target as well as Krokus and Black Oak Arkansas), replacing original vocalist Tommy Andris. The band became a hit in the Memphis scene and signed with Epic Records. The group released one album, the Tom Allom-produced First Strike, in 1983. The British music magazine Kerrang! listed the album at number one in its import charts with the song "Blood On Your Money" getting MTV airplay, being Jamison's first music video. "Looking at You" and "Travelin' Man" were promoted at the Memphis TV Club. Cobra started touring in the United States opening for Quiet Riot, Nazareth, and Krokus. Their live performance on November 27, 1983, was broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour (KBFH) and later partly released on the Live Attack! and Only You Can Rock Me bootlegs. The live set included a half dozen unreleased songs, including their original "I'm a Fighter", written by Jimi and Mandy, which was covered by the group Van Zant in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, First Strike was only a moderate commercial success, and the band split at the end of the year, primarily due to each member wanting to do different things.
After Cobra's demise in 1984, Jamison was invited to join Survivor (after his friend, Frank Rand, from Epic Records had suggested him to them), whose success had been waning since their number-one hit "Eye of the Tiger" in 1982. The band had recently parted ways with original singer Dave Bickler, due to his vocal cord injuries that required a lengthy convalescence. After a successful audition with the band, Jamison joined them despite some misgivings about Survivor's pop rock sound. He provided a spark to the band, eventually gaining great success and putting the band back on top. His first recording with the band was "The Moment of Truth" (The Karate Kid theme song), which reached number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1984. Jamison's first full album with Survivor, and the band's fifth overall, was Vital Signs, released later in 1984. That album reached number 16 on the Billboard Album Chart and was certified platinum by the RIAA. The album included the hit singles "High on You" (which reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart), "I Can't Hold Back" (number 13 on the singles chart and number 1 on Top Rock Tracks chart), with Jamison proving to be a worthy frontman and a photogenic face of the band, which helped the video for this song get significant airplay on MTV, and "The Search Is Over" (number 4 on the singles chart and number 1 on the adult contemporary chart). "First Night" also reached number 53 on the singles chart. The band began touring in Chicago and Indianapolis in 1984, in 1985 the band went on tour with headliner Bryan Adams, performing at his sold-out concerts at Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium, the Dallas Convention Center, the San Antonio Convention Center and the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. They also toured with REO Speedwagon around that time with appearances at the San Diego Sports Arena and other venues, plus touring in Tokyo, Japan in which they released a DVD of the concert and appeared and performed in different Japanese Television Shows. That same year Survivor was requested by Stallone once again to do the theme song for the next Rocky film, achieving another hit with "Burning Heart" from the film Rocky IV. In early 1986, the single peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Jamison's second album with Survivor, When Seconds Count, was released on October 9, 1986, and included the hit single "Is This Love" (number 7 on the singles chart). The album peaked at a disappointing number 49 on the Billboard Album Chart but still managed to sell over 500,000 copies and was certified Gold. This album also featured Jamison making songwriting contributions to the band's repertoire, including the single "Man Against the World" (number 86). This song was originally slated for inclusion on the Rocky IV soundtrack and was in fact later included in that album's 2006 reissue. Another single, "How Much Love" peaked at number 51 on the singles chart, while "In Good Faith" was promoted in Europe, with the band performing on German TV shows. Survivor released their final 80s album, Too Hot to Sleep, in late 1988. Jamison would later cite the album as his personal favorite with Survivor, but it suffered from a lack of record company promotion and only reached number 187 on the Billboard albums chart. Three singles were released, with "Across the Miles" reaching number 74 on the singles chart, "Didn't Know It Was Love" reaching number 61, and "Desperate Dreams" receiving promotion in Europe, but the band could not sustain the success from their previous albums.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
