Ralph Joseph "Jody" Reynolds (December 3, 1932 – November 7, 2008)[1] was an American rock and roll singer, guitarist, and songwriter whose song "Endless Sleep" was a major U.S. top-ten hit in the summer of 1958.

[4] Inspired by Western Swing and artists such as Bob Wills, Hank Thompson, and Eddy Arnold, who he heard on the radio, Reynolds took up guitar at age 14.

[3] Inspired by the haunting sound of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel", Reynolds wrote "Endless Sleep" while in Yuma, Arizona for a gig, and played it onstage the same night.

[3] With spooky, reverb-laden vocals, "Endless Sleep" tells the story of a young man desperately searching for his girlfriend, who, after an argument, has flung herself into the ocean.

"Endless Sleep" would later be covered by the Judds, John Fogerty, Nick Lowe and Billy Idol; Marty Wilde had a major hit with it in the UK,[4] and Hank Williams, Jr.'s version was a modest country music chart success.

[5] Starting in the late 1970s, "Endless Sleep" and other of Reynolds' songs were re-released in Europe and America; the rockabilly revival beginning in the mid-1970s (Hank Mizell's "Jungle Rock" hit the UK top ten in 1976) saw a further increase of interest in his music.