Yes, like the breakfast sausage. But by the time the entrepreneur’s name became forever linked to, well, links, Jimmy Dean had been a successful entertainer for decades. First on the radio and then as the host of an eponymous television variety show, the Texan’s clear, mellow baritone and light twang helped bridge pop and country for a national audience. His recordings didn’t necessarily challenge the country status quo, but did help the genre’s aims to fight rock and R&B for a place in the early ’60s mainstream. Dean was only rarely a commercial force as an artist; his impact was more felt through his on-air charisma than his hits, which were as intriguing as they were anomalous. Foremost among them was the 1961 talking blues “Big Bad John,” a mythic story-song written by Dean that spent five weeks on top of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart—making it a massive crossover hit, and inspiring numerous answer-songs and sequels (including Dean’s own, “The Cajun Queen” and “Little Bitty Big John”). Other successful songs include “P.T. 109,” a surprisingly lighthearted ode to President John F. Kennedy’s military service that was also a big crossover hit, and the saccharine love song “The First Thing Ev'ry Morning (And tthe Last Thing Ev'ry Night).”