Late era crooner Jack Jones died recently. He was an easy listening fixture on British TV in the late 60s and early 70s but he never had a UK hit as far as I recall.
His style of singing wasn’t to my taste in those far off years but I do remember reading (or was it on a chat show?) that when he started out his agent – or his manager – asked him if he’d ever been in love and he said “No.” “Too bad,” was the reply, since it would make him a more expressive singer of love songs.
Some time later Jones informed his agent he had finally fallen in love. To which the agent replied, “Now, if only she’d leave you.”
This is a reasonably typical example of Jones’s œuvre at that time.
Jack Jones: Wives and Lovers
The following, however, might be more familiar to those relatively younger than me.
Jack Jones: Love Boat Theme
John Allan (Jack) Jones: 14/1/1938 –23/10/2024. So it goes.
Another of the most successful songwriters of the 60s, Ken Howard, has died. Together with his songwriting partner Alan Blaikley (whose death I noted here) he wrote hits for The Honeycombs, The Herd and, most notably, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. Their songwriting list is impressive.
This was a no 4 for the latter band in 1965.
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich: Hold Tight!
Later in their career Howard and Blaikley went into writing TV Themes and musicals.
This is perhaps the most familiar of those tunes.
Vejle Symfoniorkester: Miss Marple TV Theme
Kenneth Charles (Ken) Howard: 26/12/1939 – 24/12/2024. So it goes.
One of Fife’s finest, Stuart Adamson, was the founding force behind the band Big Country.
He attended one of the schools I taught in Beath High School (but I think before my time there) and at least one his children was a pupil at the other, Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline.
Big Country’s skirling guitar sound was intended to invoke its members’ Scottish heritage as heard in this song. The clip seems to be a live version as performed on The Tube.
