THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
950) Jo Ann Garrett — “Walk on By”
Jo Ann gives us a horn-infused, slow burn “killer version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s ‘Walk on By’ (with loads of wah-wah guitar)”. (Steve Krakow, https://chicagoreader.com/music/local-soul-sensation-jo-ann-Jarrett-disappeared-from-the-biz-in-her-20s/). After listening to her tour de force performance, you’ll never listen to the song the same way again.
Steve Krakow:
Garrett was a Chicago sensation in the late 60s and early 70s, but she didn’t break out nationally . . . . Her reputation as a talented soprano singer caught the attention of her [DuSable High School] classmate Cormie Vance, who sang with R&B vocal group the Para-Monts . . . . Vance urged Garrett to audition for WVON DJ and club owner Pervis Spann. Garrett passed the audition, which got her a spot at a talent show at the Regal Theater. She took second place . . . and . . . ended up with record contracts. . . . [H]er music career was being managed by Spann and Robert “Bob” Lee, who owned a small local label called Hawk Records . . . . Beginning in 1966 [Spann] co-owned the south-side venue known simply as “the Club” . . . . Garrett began performing regularly [there] and around the city, and soon she . . . . cut two dreamy soul ballads . . . . Chess Records picked up the recordings and released them as Garrett’s first single, and the record did well locally in spring 1966. . . . [Then] the ethereal “Thousand Miles Away” (a remake of the 1957 Heartbeats hit) . . . . earned a lot of Chicago airplay and enough attention in markets outside the city that Garrett could tour. In 1968, Garrett . . . began working with a fledgling company called Duo . . . . Garrett’s debut . . . fared very well locally, and Garrett released several more excellent singles with Duo over the next few years . . . . [I]n 1969, [Chesa] released her lone LP, Just a Taste . . . . contain[ing] a few tunes that had previously been local favorites—alongside the excellent psych-soul number “It’s No Secret[]” . . . “Walk on By” . . . and a smoky, jazzy rendition of the Nat King Cole classic “Unforgettable.” Chess released a single from the album . . . but neither it nor the album made much of a splash at the time. . . . . The last Garrett release that I can find any evidence of online is an R&B-adjacent 1972 single for the Duke label . . . . After that point, it looks like she retired from music.
https://chicagoreader.com/music/local-soul-sensation-jo-ann-garrett-disappeared-from-the-biz-in-her-20s/
MichaelSmith-yb5bb says that Jo Ann “went to DuSable High School in Chicago and live in the ‘Hole’ in the Robert Taylor projects. She and my sister were classmates. Her brother Larry was mine. We all were glad she made it. Lovely voice.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAxQIbnHYCY)
Here is Dionne:
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