THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,042) Samantha Jones — “Today Without You”
No, not from Sex and the City! This slinky “hideously rare and hard to find but brilliant” (doowopmike, https://www.45cat.com/record/pen703) and unforgettable Brit Girl classic inexplicably failed to become a megahit in the UK. Well, it did win Samantha “the Radio-Télé Luxembourg Grand Prix International Song Contest” (https://www.toppermost.co.uk/samantha-jones/) and charted in Belgium and the Netherlands. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Jones_(singer)) The song was produced by ex-Teenage Opera producer Mark Wirtz. Samantha says it “was successful all over the continent. But I absolutely hated it! However, Mark liked it and pushed for its release. And, certainly, when I sang it around Europe everybody loved it”. (https://www.toppermost.co.uk/samantha-jones/) Wirtz and everbody in Europe were right!
Bruce Eder tells us about Ms. Jones:
A one-time key member of the Vernons Girls, Samantha Jones bidded fair for stardom in her own right in early-’60s England — some think she might even have been a potential rival to Dusty Springfield had things gone right — but somehow she never made the cut. . . . She’s distinguished herself among the dozens of women who passed through the ranks of the Vernons Girls and had sung on all of the group’s early-’60s hits for English Decca before exiting in 1964. Jones signed with United Artists . . . . [She] was modestly successful in England despite a powerful voice and great songs to work with, and her magnum opus . . . “I Deserve It[]” . . . compares favorably with the best work of Darlene Love or the Ronettes with Phil Spector, never even got released in the U.K. until 1994. She later scored hits in the category of Northern soul and retreated to more of an MOR style in the 1970s.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/samantha-jones-mn0000292385#biography
David Pearson goes deep:
[Samantha Jones] is regarded by very many lovers of the 60s Brit Girl genre as one of the very best, and one whose failure to ever dent the British charts is both baffling and unjust. She was born Jean Owen in Liverpool . . . . As the 60s got under way Jean was working in the offices of Jacob’s biscuit factory. She answered an ad in the Liverpool Echo for a girl soprano for a group that did television work. She got the job and the group turned out to be the Vernons Girls who had been regulars on shows like 6.5 Special and Oh Boy! There were around 16 in the group at that time but the company decided to reduce it to a trio, and Jean would eventually find herself recruited to join Maureen Kennedy and Frances Lea. She would emerge as the main lead singer and over the next few years the girls would record several singles for Decca. Released in 1962, “Lover Please” was a great single . . . . In 1964, Jack Good put together a TV special, Around The Beatles, featuring the Fab Four alongside the likes of Cilla Black, P.J. Proby, Millie and Long John Baldry. One musical item was to feature Cilla duetting with Baldry. But . . . as Sam explains . . . . [“]Cilla refused to do it – ‘it’ll spoil me image,’ she said . . . . In the show Long John starts singing, and Maureen . . . comes forward through the crowd and sings Lover Please at him. The cameras then cut to me and I move forward towards John and sing Forty Days . . . . That made quite a splash. John Lennon came up to me and said, ‘You shouldn’t be singing with these girls, you should be singing solo.’” Arranger Charles Blackwell also persuaded her to strike out on her own. . . . She was signed to United Artists and given a new name – Samantha Jones. . . . Singles and albums followed but somehow that British chart hit eluded her. One of her most commercial was 1967’s “Surrounded by a Ray of Sunshine . . . . Towards the end of the sixties, Sam signed with Penny Farthing Records . . . . [Her version of “My Way”] won her a Belgian music festival and reached No.4 on the Dutch charts. She would go on to win first prize in the Sopot International Song Festival in Poland with “He Moves Me” in 1971. Sam continued to record throughout the seventies and early eighties, finally bowing out of the recording scene and embarking on a new life producing shows for cruise ships.
https://www.toppermost.co.uk/samantha-jones/
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