I love it when I buy a record that moves me enough to want to post it here on Feel It straightaway. Last week two such records arrived in the same package. So, here goes with the first of them.
Earlier this year I wrote a piece on Jackie Moore titled Queen-B and featured two of her Seventies songs that appeared as B sides. Last week I was very pleased to pick up this Jay Boy issue for next to nothing and, again, it’s the B-side that is really turning me on.
The year on the label is 1968. That refers to the original recording date of this song. “Dear John” backed with “Here Am I” was Jackie Moore’s debut single, on the Shout label, recorded during a brief, and unsuccessful chartwise, stay in Philly. This UK Jay Boy release dates to 1971.
Incidentally, I love the Jay Boy label. It probably goes back to George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby” when I was just getting into Soul music, and the fact that it had a quirky name and design which was refreshing amongst all the major label mundanity that dominated UK releases in the early 70s. Looking at the Jay Boy discography around the time of this Jackie Moore release it is clear they had a deal with Shout because Freddie Scott, Erma Franklin, and Philip Mitchell’s "I'm Gonna Build California From All Over The World" (great title, and I never knew that got a UK release!), were also issued.
I digress.
“Dear John” is a perfectly acceptable song but it’s “Here Am I” that is the stronger song and just simply irresistible to my ears. How this hasn’t ever seemed to garner more recognition on the Northern/Crossover scene, or whatever you want to call it, beats me. And, who knows?, if “Here Am I” had been the A side perhaps Jackie Moore would have started her recording life with a smash hit and her career would have ended up being more stratospheric than it was.
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