The Singing Jones Family (Sunnyland Records album)

The Singing Jones Family
Sunnyland LP-1418

1972

Gospel on side one, country on side two. The family consisted of four members : D.A. Jones (bass), Dot Jones (rhythm guitar), Linda, 18 (piano) and Rose, 16 years old (drums). 

They also issued four singles on the same label from 1970 to 1975. The family would travel the region for store openings and to perform in parking lots or shopping centers.

D. L. Hardin, vice-president of Sunnyland Records, Inc., produced the album in Nashville. Only artists on the label was The Jones Family who didn't, it seems, recorded again after 1975.

What better song to listen to to end the year than Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On sung by Linda (or is it Rose) ? You can also listen to their "Country Rock" posted at my blog 12 years ago here

★

This Jones Family shouldn't be confused with the numerous other Jones Family such as:

The Singing Jones Family from Albany, Georgia (lead: Doyle Jones)
The Jones Family and Friends Ensemble (South Carolina) on Strawberry Jamm Records
The Jones Family (lead: John D. Jones) from Missouri (Dungeon Studios)
The Jones Family (Charles, Shirley, Tonda, Jeff & Brian, Suroinsville, Tennessee)
The Jones Family Gospel Singers (LeRoy & Jeanet, their son Rocky, plus Becky Hubin) from Kansas
The Jones Family on New Frontier (Bob & his 4 sisters) recorded in Jackson, Tennessee
The Jones Family Band, a Detroit band produced by Vallen Zukowski. A psych band, no possible confusion, I guess. No member named Jones by the way.

Donna Danger, The Cherokee Chick

 

I have 4 tracks only from Donna Danger, the crazy little mama from ? (Pennsylvannia I guess). If one of you have the full album recorded by her for the Jan imprint out of Sweden, feel free to share ...

Discography:

81 Bishop : Danger And The Country Express : Handsome Man / Just For You
83 Jan LP V/A All American Rock Vol. 1 : Handsome Man / Just For You
84 Jan LP : Donna Danger The Cherokee Chick : 14 tracks

1/1 Mean Little Mama 1/2  Rock The Joint 1/3 Cherokee Chick 1/4  The Shape I'm In 1/5 The Cats Were Jumping 1/6 High School Romance 1/7 That's Love
2/1 Rockin' Record Hop 2/2 Ooby Dooby 2/3 Well, I'm Weak 2/4 I've Got You Honey 2/5 Honey Bop 2/6 Rock-A-Bye Rock 2/7 Your Mama's Here

85 Alexis : Donna Danger And The R-Tones : High School Romance (flip by The Tears And Laughters)

 Cover of her album I would to hear

 

Donna Danger, The Cherokee Chick 

 

 

I The Dentist

 

Brook Arnold - I The Dentist

 
From Columbine Records NST 20 (The Now Sounds Of Today)

 

Ay Ya Ya Ya........

 

Neita And The Drifters

 

Introducing Neita and The Drifters

Joe Sixpack, San Francisco Bay Area DJ, has nicely, as usual,  reviewed this album here :

An archetypal custom-label indie album by an informal country'n'oldies band out of Lawrence, Kansas, featuring a middle-aged gal named Neita Bahnmaier on piano, organ and vocals, along with several local lads, several of whom also sing lead on a track or two: Harvey Boyd on drums, David Cloud (lead guitar), Lynn McKenzie (bass), Leo McMullen (harmonica), Mickey Penny (lead guitar) and Bill Smith (rhythm guitar).

 Born [Neita M. Atchinson] in 1929, Mrs. Bahnmaier and her husband Joe lived on the outskirts of town, in rural Lecompton, although it isn't hard to imagine that the younger bandmembers were in some local rock bands, and possibly were enrolled at Kansas University... (I'm speculating: for the life of me, I couldn't find biographical info about most of these folks, other than Mr. McKenzie, who lived in Oskaloosa and passed away in 2003...) Anyway, this is an amateurish album that's easy to be charmed by, with some easy-to-play oldies such as "All Shook Up," "Johnny B. Goode," "Kansas City" (of course!) and also a decent amount of country stuff, tunes like "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Paper Roses" and "Snow Bird" (with Mrs. Bahnmaier singing lead.) My personal favorite is their unlikely cover of Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour," which could be dismissed as too whitebread and too rock'n'roll, but which I hear as an unexpectedly groovy, guitar-heavy power-pop confection... And in case anyone's keeping track, they also cover "Proud Mary," in this version, a duet between Neita and picker Mickey Penny. I'm not sure if these folks did much in the way of live public performances -- I did find some show listings a decade later, circa 1986-86 -- but this is a pretty cute little album.

Johnny B. Good

 

Upon The Nipples Of Julia's Breast

 

" Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me"(cover)

Among the 31 short love poems read by Jane Mansfield, I have selected from her album Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me"  (MGM Records, 1964) the one by Robert Herrick : Upon The Nipples Of Julia's Breast


HAVE ye beheld (with much delight)
A red rose peeping through a white ?
Or else a cherry, double grac'd,
Within a lily centre plac'd ?
Or ever mark'd the pretty beam
A strawberry shows half-drown'd in cream ?
Or seen rich rubies blushing through
A pure smooth pearl and orient too ?
So like to this, nay all the rest,
Is each neat niplet of her breast.

Almost forgotten in the 18th century, and in the 19th century alternately applauded for his poetry’s lyricism and condemned for its “obscenities,” Robert Herrick is, in the latter half of the 20th century, finally becoming recognized as one of the most accomplished nondramatic poets of his age.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-herrick

Upon The Nipples Of Julia's Breast

No one really knows for certain what prompted Jayne or MGM Records to make this album in the first place. No one, to this day, knows what to make of it.  She certainly wanted to be taken seriously. But no one did:  how could that have been possible :

The photography on the cover is one of the worst Jayne picture I have ever seen, Earl Wilson, the author of the liner notes contributed juvenile breast jokes, and finally few people admitted to have listened to it.

One of the few reviewers to admit he had lstened to it, Nick Jones of the Indianapolis News, wrote : If the idea is a gag - then P.T. Barnum has a new rival, [...] but if she's taking herself seriously, well, it's downright embarassing.

 

A better cover