Jimmy Jones, "The Nights of Mexico" c/w "You're Much Too Young," Cub K9110 (rel. 7/1962)

After years of obscurity, vocalist Jimmy Jones had a major hit with 1959's "Handy Man," a song the history books have all confused. Jones had sung in a vocal group called The Sparks of Rhythm, who recorded for Apollo Record. After  he'd left that group to front The Pretenders, the Sparks recorded a song called "Handy Man," credited to songwriters Charles Merenstein and Andrew Barksdale. It is in no way related to the song Jones brought to his first recording session for Cub Records.* In '59, songwriter-producer Otis Blackwell, talent scout for M-G-M's Cub imprint, offered Jones a place on its roster. Jones' song had obvious hit potential; Blackwell did a quick once-over and deemed it good to go.

At the session, which Blackwell produced, Jones was encouraged to use his powerful falsetto voice, which earlier performers had touched upon, but not to the oft-grotesque extent heard on this and subsequent singles. (Donnie Elbert, who recorded for several r&b labels in the 1950s and '60s, Cub Records among them, also trafficked in falsetto, but had better control of the technique.) A flute player didn't show for the session, so Blackwell whistled that part. This gave the record its endearing home-grown vibe and it got to #2 on the pop charts.

"Good Timin'" hit #3 a few months later and topped UK pop charts. This led all parties involved down the wrong road. It's gotta be that falsetto, they figured. Public loves it. Let's build this guy's records around that gimmick, they said as they patted themselves on their backs and doomed a recording career.

Jones' follow-up singles became more grating: less attempts to cultivate a series of  good songs than to exploit the freakish highs of a singer's range. The damage was done. Though more falsetto voices came onto the pop scene (including the oft-unbearable Frankie Valli), other artists used the technique with discretion. Del Shannon had a skill in knowing the right time to go high; his natural voice was more of a baritone. Roy Orbison used falsetto in its true operatic manner on his series of classic singles for Monument Records.

Poor Jimmy remained with Cub, and this last single on the label is a sincere attempt to reboot him as a more expressive and down-to-earth performer. "The Nights of Mexico" was first recorded by its co-composer Bert Berns as Russell Byrd on a Wand Records single produced by Phil Spector. Consigned to the B-side of a flop record, "Nights" still had potential to reach the pop audience, and Berns produced his song in an evocative production.

The shrill harmonized la la las at the start do nothing for the song--a bluesy meditation on a long-lost love south of the border that still haunts our narrator, who's determined to return to "Meh-hee-ko" and reignite the flame. Patronizing to a culture, just a bit? Yes, he sighed, but so are 100 other songs of this vintage and style. Jones' double-tracked, self-harmonized lead is impressive; he couldn't seem to shake the falsetto bit, perhaps due to perceived expectations. His voice is fine without it.

Despite Cash Box's words of confidence, Jimmy Jones' chart race was long run; this was his final single on the Cub label and was ignored despite its vocalist's sincere performances of serious material.

"You're Much Too Young" is a rare serious treatment of a touchy area of Black music: the adulation of underage women. Doo-wop teems with salacious songs about school girls, their attire and the forbidden-fruit angle; "lookin' just like a juicy plum," a woman is described in Dee Clark's 1959 pop hit "Hey Little Girl." Songwriter Teddy Vann did a simple, obvious but needed thing: he confronted this uneasy scenario with a dose of reality. 

Our narrator is aware a younger girl is interested in him, but declines; the age difference is too much for him to bear. It's tempting, and he acknowledges his own attraction. His verdict: "First you gotta finish school/know all of the rules/then only time will tell...the answer to our queston [sic]: should we [inaudible] wedding bells?"

Jones' falsetto is kept in prudent check and used only when beneficial on a haunting song that shows a large step forward in maturity for pop music of its day.                                                                            

Jones label-hopped for the rest of his career and, over time, regulated his falsetto to a more pleasing part of his skill-set. Aside from a couple of beach music anthems which appealed to the coastal Carolinas region,  he never had another chart hit, though he remained active as performer and recording artist. He did have a following--but without hit records, it didn't benefit him financially. He passed on in 2012 at 82.

Tomorrow: The Hollywood Play Boys deliver some more teen rock 'n' roll, with the context of one song lost to time; it's still a fine record tho'! From 1960.

* Hear the Sparks of Rhythm's "Handy Man" here: https://youtu.be/qKKxcdrZw-c