Jimy Sohns (1946–2022) was the voice of the Shadows of Knight, one of the great garage bands of the 1960s and a source of pride for Chicago’s northwest suburbs.
The Shadows of Knight
Sohns grew up in Prospect Heights, and in 1964, as a teenager, he formed the band with fellow students from Prospect High School. The school’s teams were the Knights, and the band’s name was a nod to it.
“Gloria”
The band’s raw, bluesy cover of “Gloria,” a song written by Van Morrison and first recorded by his group Them, was released in late 1965. Many radio stations had refused to play the original because of one suggestive line, so the Shadows changed it. Their version climbed into the Billboard Top 10 in 1966, and the chorus everyone shouts along to, G-L-O-R-I-A, became a garage-rock anthem.
Keeping the Band Alive
After the original lineup split, Sohns kept the Shadows of Knight name going for more than five decades, performing across the country with new lineups. In 2016 the surviving original members reunited for a concert, their first together in nearly 50 years.
Sohns lived in Roselle in his later years. He died on July 29, 2022, at age 75, after a stroke.
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