It’s Friday, this week I give you two
JAGs (quality soul as opposed to quality motoring!)
Jo Ann Garrett was born in Chicago and would
have been only 17 or 18 when these tracks were recorded. She had been discovered at a
talent show in 1966 where she had come second to the Five Stairsteps (as
described by Robert Pruter in Chicago Soul).
Jo Ann released a total of 14 singles and
one album between 1966 and 1973, with most being released on a short spell in
the latter half of the 60s on Chess, and then Duo. You can find many of the
releases on YouTube and they are all well worth a listen. By her mid twenties
Jo Ann had left the music scene. A shame.
Thousand Miles Away
is a beautiful song. This Jo Ann Garrett 45 was released on 1967 and is a glorious
throwback to the doo wop era. It is a remake of the song that was originally a
hit 10 years earlier in 1957 for The Heartbeats. The song also featured in the
1973 film American Graffiti. The Dells are providing backing vocals on this
track and the arrangement is, I assume, by Dale Warren (miscredited as Del).
Turn this 45 over and you find Just Say When an irresistible Chicago
groove that in fact sounds very Detroit and is very much of its time. On the
label, after the title Thousand Miles
Away, there is an asterisk. I assume this denotes it as the A side. There
is no asterisk after Just Say When, but
there should be because it is the equal of its partner.
4 comments:
Just Say When is THE tune. It should have the *. However, Garret's voice deserve many *.
Thanks for this one.
Sorry, 1st comment from me :-)
This is a good way to get my comment count up Ravel :)
I always do my best, in everything. :o)
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