Speaker 1: Question Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio. Hello,
Speaker 1: how you doing? Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Course Love Supreme.
Speaker 1: I have to think for one second exactly where worried?
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Quest Love. Thank you for joining us
Speaker 1: yet again here with my squid? What's up a pay bill? How?
Speaker 1: How are you? Man? It's a good day. I can't
Speaker 1: come play? Summer Summer is good so far, can't complays
Speaker 1: are happy? Campus in session? Life is good, Camps in session,
Speaker 1: Campus in session, Summer camp is summer camp, but summer
Speaker 1: camp in the crib. Right. No, they go away, not
Speaker 1: like you sent them away, but no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: like a way, a way way, just like during the
Speaker 1: day away. I would call that summer school. But amon
Speaker 1: and when they come home them like a prison movie.
Speaker 1: That's right, I see that. Uh, how's it going on,
Speaker 1: Sugar Steve Freshmen Yer season five? That's right? Yeah, everything's cool.
Speaker 1: I mean boss called me into work today, so there's that.
Speaker 1: And uh but other than that, doing good horrible boss
Speaker 1: you have there? Sorry? Anyways, all right, well everything's fine?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm good. Yes, I can hear you loud
Speaker 1: and clear, like you press the mute, right, right, how's
Speaker 1: it going like you? Oh, it's going good? You mean
Speaker 1: I muted? No, you know we can hear you now, alright, No,
Speaker 1: just going good. I mean I'm excited to talk to
Speaker 1: some good Philly music and whatnot. Exactly all right, Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of which, ladies and gentlemen, Um, speaking of Philly music,
Speaker 1: our guest today is the pride of the City of Detroit,
Speaker 1: Misia via Philadelphia. Um. Yeah, along with her sisters, uh,
Speaker 1: with great Brenda Valerie Jones. I will say that our
Speaker 1: guest today, um, along with her two sisters were probably
Speaker 1: uh V go to background combo trio in the mid seventies. Uh.
Speaker 1: They kind of dominated that platform, sort of similar to
Speaker 1: how Since Houston and the Sweden Inspirations once did in
Speaker 1: the mid mid to late sixties for many luminaries from
Speaker 1: Aretha Franklin, uh, Lou Rawls, Teddy Pendergrass, and the Clifford Power.
Speaker 1: Of course, Diana Ross where I first heard her group's
Speaker 1: name mentioned. Well, okay, Diana called him the Jones sisters
Speaker 1: that live record Um. But anyway, they signed. They came
Speaker 1: to my hometown of Philadelphia around seventy nine, worked under
Speaker 1: the Mighty Philadelphia International Records Empire UM releasing hit after
Speaker 1: icon of hit UH from the the Hove sample UH
Speaker 1: You're Gonna make Me Love somebody Else, UH to Like Dance,
Speaker 1: Turn the romance to my all time favorite Nights Over
Speaker 1: Egypt Too, who run to so many to name. Also,
Speaker 1: I'll say that our guest today enjoyed her first UH
Speaker 1: number one hit single uh D get Enough Love six
Speaker 1: two years after she left for a solo career and
Speaker 1: UH with the six LPs under her belt with her
Speaker 1: family two solo records, our guests is still holding the
Speaker 1: mantel and and kind of the legacy of the Jones
Speaker 1: Girls in her hands. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to
Speaker 1: Quest Clip Supreme the one and only Shirley Jones. Thank you, well,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. Hey. How are you? I'm fine.
Speaker 1: I'm doing really good, staying in the house, which is
Speaker 1: the safest place right now. Exactly. That's that's that's we're
Speaker 1: doing to stay in the house, you know. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: I thank you for doing this. I will say that, UM,
Speaker 1: after a lot of stalking on Instagram and social media,
Speaker 1: I was happy that I was I was fortunate enough
Speaker 1: to get your attention to come and join us on
Speaker 1: the show because I'm so happy. Yeah, I'm so happy
Speaker 1: because i mean, I'm just I'm a fan. So I'm
Speaker 1: fanning out right now. Absolutely, you and the roots and
Speaker 1: i mean the Tonight Show. We used to just sit
Speaker 1: there and watch the nice We're gonna one day We're
Speaker 1: gonna be on the Tonight Show. This is back when
Speaker 1: Johnny Carson was So I'm a huge fan. Well, I
Speaker 1: mean I'm a fan of yours as well. Of course,
Speaker 1: like I've known you, know as in Philadelphia, and I've known, Um,
Speaker 1: I've learned of your history after you came to Philadelphia
Speaker 1: to sign to the label. But um, I'm really curious
Speaker 1: about that. The first part of your career. Um in Detroit, Michigan. Um,
Speaker 1: what part of what part of Detroit did you guys
Speaker 1: grow up in? We grew up on the west Side,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the east Side and west side, west Side.
Speaker 1: We went to Central High School. That's a nice part
Speaker 1: of Detroit. No, absolutely not. Okay, See I'm told by
Speaker 1: a lot of I'm told by Detroit luminaries that if
Speaker 1: someone's on the east Side, I should watch my wallet.
Speaker 1: But someone's from the west side, then you know, they
Speaker 1: might have finished it right, No, I mean it's a okay,
Speaker 1: it's okay, yeah, alright, so um can you well? Okay?
Speaker 1: I always start with what was your first musical memory?
Speaker 1: My first musical memory was me and my mom singing
Speaker 1: just the two of us, once she found out that
Speaker 1: I could sing it, like six years old. She was
Speaker 1: a very popular gospel singer back in the Detroit area,
Speaker 1: Mary Fraser Jones. In fact, she was the first black
Speaker 1: gospel singer that r c A Records. They signed my
Speaker 1: mother to Gospel to the Gospel label the same day
Speaker 1: they signed Little Richard. So yeah, and once she discovered
Speaker 1: that I could sing, I remember going around at these
Speaker 1: different churches singing just the two of us when it
Speaker 1: was just she and I. Okay, when you say just
Speaker 1: the two of us, I'm instantly yeah, another just the
Speaker 1: two of us, right, it's a gospel song, just the
Speaker 1: two of us. Okay. I see in your in the
Speaker 1: lineup of your sisters, where do you fall are you?
Speaker 1: I'm the oldest. Okay, you're the oldest sister. Yes, So
Speaker 1: was it just you three in the household or did
Speaker 1: you have other siblings? No? Through my mother and father's union.
Speaker 1: It's just the three of us, but they're like five
Speaker 1: other kids by three other different women, you know, wives
Speaker 1: and you know that wives. Yeah, he was, he was
Speaker 1: a minister to like that. Yes, yes, yes, my mother
Speaker 1: my mother was the second wife or second maybe third? Okay,
Speaker 1: there were five? Yeah, I feel you. Um, So basically,
Speaker 1: what was what was the your your childhood like? Um?
Speaker 1: Because I'm always curious to ask you how, especially when
Speaker 1: groups that I admire sort of unfolding the seventies, they
Speaker 1: all seem to have the same kind of narrative, which
Speaker 1: is that they start in gospel music, and I'm always
Speaker 1: curious to see how they are kind of able to
Speaker 1: unwrap themselves out of gospel, like some answers are like,
Speaker 1: you know, it was it was a controversial thing to
Speaker 1: start seeing secular and some you know, they were embraced
Speaker 1: by their their church and their family whatnot. But what
Speaker 1: was your relationship with music when you were growing up?
Speaker 1: Like were you allowed to listen to both or just
Speaker 1: gospel in the house? Oh? No, she she did, and
Speaker 1: she allowed us to listen to both. It was very
Speaker 1: difficult after being with her because we were traveling around Detroit.
Speaker 1: You know, Detroit's the music city, Old town but as
Speaker 1: well as gospel. But Detroit's choirs were known all over
Speaker 1: the world. Aretha Franklin's father his church, so we were
Speaker 1: traveling that circuit around Detroit, Chicago and singing behind my mother.
Speaker 1: My mother was also the music director at Russell Street
Speaker 1: Baptist Church, so she knew voices, and I credit our
Speaker 1: harmonies and our vocalizing to my mother. My mother rehearsed us,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, from the time I was about seven
Speaker 1: or eight and Brendan Valerie were stairsteps, so once she
Speaker 1: realized what she had, she rehearsed us at least maybe
Speaker 1: four or five times a week. Other kids be out
Speaker 1: there playing and we'd be put out there trying to play.
Speaker 1: But my godmother, who lived across the street, was the
Speaker 1: piano player. We always had a piano in our home
Speaker 1: because we studied piano where we all played piano, and
Speaker 1: my mother was like, okay, you guys, come in, we're
Speaker 1: going to rehearse. She practiced our voices. She taught us
Speaker 1: how to lay back if the if the notice too overpowering.
Speaker 1: She taught us diction um. So I credit everything to
Speaker 1: her from teaching us early on and then being on
Speaker 1: the same circuit as like the Clark's Sisters. The wine
Speaker 1: is back then. Man, when Holland jo Joan Holland reached
Speaker 1: out and wanted us to start to try to come
Speaker 1: to their label, to first to say she yes, she
Speaker 1: a music merchant too. The yeah, my mother was just
Speaker 1: so it took a lot of persuading, but she finally
Speaker 1: let us do it. I'm curious as to okays, as
Speaker 1: to the training, because the thing is is that um
Speaker 1: and listening to your records, I noticed that you guys
Speaker 1: spend an equal amount of time singing in unison in
Speaker 1: addition to your harmonies, and always wanted to know what
Speaker 1: was the because that was an unusual trademark. And I
Speaker 1: guess as a non singer, like I'm a producer who's
Speaker 1: a non singer, so I would automatically think, well, coming
Speaker 1: out the gate, everyone sings in harmony, but you guys
Speaker 1: had a really unusual process where you all sing together,
Speaker 1: so it was always like one voice to me exactly,
Speaker 1: and that when my mother was training us, that's what
Speaker 1: she was. She would always grill us and she'd be like,
Speaker 1: I want you surely to pull back, or Brenda, I
Speaker 1: need you to come up more, even when we're doing unison,
Speaker 1: she would say, because the ultimate goal is for your
Speaker 1: harmonies and your unisons to sound like a lead, to
Speaker 1: sound like a lead. And she drilled that that in us.
Speaker 1: And and one of the best memories that I have
Speaker 1: with my sisters is when it was just the three
Speaker 1: of us, after we started doing background for different people,
Speaker 1: when it was just the three of us together, no boyfriends,
Speaker 1: no you know, nobody girl for girlfriends, hanging around with us,
Speaker 1: we would practice that because my mother had drilled it
Speaker 1: in us. We would practice that whether we were doing
Speaker 1: background for somebody or working on our own project, it
Speaker 1: had to be right. And then Valerie, the younger sister,
Speaker 1: she has she was blessed with near perfect pitch, so
Speaker 1: of course she would always be like, that doesn't sound right.
Speaker 1: You're too sharp. Purely get that, you know. So we
Speaker 1: had so much fun practicing because we always strove to
Speaker 1: be for our sound to be perfect, whether we were
Speaker 1: singing unison harmony, singing behind a Wretha Franklin, or doing
Speaker 1: a Jones Girls project. Well, I know that you were
Speaker 1: always in the gospel choir, but you know, I know
Speaker 1: that you're in Detroit, which even after they long you know,
Speaker 1: migrated to Los Angeles. I'm certain that you know still
Speaker 1: with Luminary is still there like funk Adelic and whatnot?
Speaker 1: Like what were your what was the the the social
Speaker 1: interaction with other notable members of the Detroit musical community
Speaker 1: for you, Like who was there a group of people
Speaker 1: that you hung with or notable people that we would know?
Speaker 1: Um not really we um Well, when we went to
Speaker 1: music Merchant to Holland Jorjan Holland's label, we were doing
Speaker 1: background for like Chairman of the Board, uh free to
Speaker 1: pain Honey Koane um. And at that time we were
Speaker 1: I guess maybe fourteen. In fact, when I was watching
Speaker 1: Um Summer of Soul, it took me way back and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god. Half of those people
Speaker 1: that were involved in that we either met we either
Speaker 1: worked with. And that said, wow, what a blessing because
Speaker 1: at that time in sixty nine, we were like twelve
Speaker 1: thirteen years old and we had just started doing had
Speaker 1: ground at that age for Holland Doljo Holland because they
Speaker 1: saw us on a gospel TV show in Detroit and
Speaker 1: that was when we begged my mother, oh, this is
Speaker 1: Holland Dolja Holland Motown. Please let us do background. They
Speaker 1: just it's just background, just background, no, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's not gospel background. But please, Mom, please, So she
Speaker 1: finally lets let us do it. But the stipulation was
Speaker 1: she had to be there. She was at every session
Speaker 1: from the time I was thirteen and we started doing
Speaker 1: it until I was eighteen. Grown. I know, I know
Speaker 1: that since you know Ray Charles introducing quote unquote secular
Speaker 1: non gospel lyrics to gospel music, that that's always been
Speaker 1: an issue with the church and whatnot. Um, But obviously
Speaker 1: you're coming from a younger generation, UM that isn't so
Speaker 1: married to what your parents and grandparents would have subscribed to. So,
Speaker 1: you know, how who who was your your north star
Speaker 1: as far as like who did you grow up idolizing?
Speaker 1: Like Who's who's the voice that you long to be?
Speaker 1: Sort of not in a non gospel way, like who
Speaker 1: are you listening to the radio? On the radio? All
Speaker 1: of Motown? Yeah, the Temptations, the Four Tops, but the
Speaker 1: but the group that we idolized and used to have
Speaker 1: my mom make outfits for, of course, was the Supremes.
Speaker 1: We absolutely idolized the Supremes. We wanted to be like
Speaker 1: the Supremes. And yes, yes, we wanted to be like
Speaker 1: the Supremes. Okay, so we we've asked another person that's
Speaker 1: once worked with Diana Ross what that experience was like.
Speaker 1: The story was humorous. Uh no, they're talking about Chila
Speaker 1: E's uh rather tense time under a camp. What was it?
Speaker 1: What was it like? And of course I'm skipping, I
Speaker 1: want to know about all your background stuff. But what
Speaker 1: was it like to finally land that job? It was?
Speaker 1: It was amazing. Uh we actually, uh, we were perfectly happy.
Speaker 1: We had just moved to Detroit to l A with
Speaker 1: McKinley Jackson. He was managing us at the time, and
Speaker 1: we were perfectly happy doing background sessions because because we
Speaker 1: were doing like three and four a day, it was
Speaker 1: either us or the waters that people wanted to do
Speaker 1: their waterground back then. Oh yeah, well those are my buddies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was either us or them that That's who we were,
Speaker 1: those premier groups for background singing back then. And McKinley said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, Diana's um auditioning for some singers and she's
Speaker 1: been turning everybody down and you know, and I and
Speaker 1: he said, you guys want to try. We like Diana, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we're from Detroit. Hey, let's give
Speaker 1: it a shot. And so we went up there actually
Speaker 1: thinking we were singing for gil Aski, her music director
Speaker 1: and her road manager Don Peak up lower canyon somewhere,
Speaker 1: and we went up there and McKinley started playing. We
Speaker 1: had rehearsed, ain't a mountain high enough and reach out
Speaker 1: and touch somebody's hand for our audition, and right in
Speaker 1: the middle of singing, who comes down the hall but
Speaker 1: Diana Ross and yeah, and the only the only words
Speaker 1: out of her mouth was you guys are terrific. Can
Speaker 1: you get passports? We're going to London? And we, of course,
Speaker 1: you know, we were like, yeah, we can go to London.
Speaker 1: And but we had to work out some things on
Speaker 1: our contract because of our background singing. When she did
Speaker 1: allow we traveled seven months of the year with her,
Speaker 1: and then when she was on hiatus, she did allow
Speaker 1: us to keep our background singing career for other artists
Speaker 1: uml retainer, but we were allowed to sing right, but
Speaker 1: we were still getting you know, we were getting half
Speaker 1: of our paycheck when she was when she wasn't working,
Speaker 1: but she still allowed us to to do our singing,
Speaker 1: our background singing. UM. And over the years I have
Speaker 1: defended and and said said so many people have said,
Speaker 1: what was she like? I hear you know, she's this,
Speaker 1: she's that, and the other. I said, let me just
Speaker 1: tell you one thing. She was the hottest entertainer in
Speaker 1: the world back in the seventies. Absolutely nobody was bigger
Speaker 1: than Diana Ross except maybe Frank Sinatra. And she was
Speaker 1: a perfectionist. She was a female and she was demanding.
Speaker 1: She demanded that her from her band to her singers
Speaker 1: to be as into the show and rehearse and be
Speaker 1: on top of your gig as she was. And because
Speaker 1: that was it drilled in us and that's what we
Speaker 1: did anyway. UM. She was absolutely one of the best
Speaker 1: people to work for. And she was so concerned for
Speaker 1: for us because up until we went to London with her,
Speaker 1: the only places we had been was Detroit, Uh surrounding
Speaker 1: areas and then California. UM. And she really loved and
Speaker 1: respected our sounds so much that after the European tour
Speaker 1: is when she came to us, she was getting ready
Speaker 1: to do her yearly twice a year residency at Caesar's
Speaker 1: palace and she came to us and said, you know,
Speaker 1: you girls are too good to be singing background behind
Speaker 1: me or anybody else whatever. So you know, I changed
Speaker 1: clothes at least five times in my show. I want
Speaker 1: you to get a song together and I want you
Speaker 1: to sing it. I'm gonna bring you out the Jones
Speaker 1: sisters and I'm going to introduce you to the world.
Speaker 1: And that's actually she did that. We chose if I
Speaker 1: ever lose this Heaven from Quincy Jones album that was
Speaker 1: got back then, and uh, that's how we got with
Speaker 1: Gamble on Huff. Yeah, yeah, Shuber in her and she
Speaker 1: called us and Cynthia Biggs and Dexter one Zel they
Speaker 1: win the audience and they said, oh they could think
Speaker 1: about and look at during the whole show was us.
Speaker 1: They kept saying, you hear those girls, you hear her
Speaker 1: background singers. They're tearing it up. And Gamble and Huff
Speaker 1: came backstage and they said, you guys are terrific. Um
Speaker 1: Are you signed with anybody? And We're like no, I'm
Speaker 1: We're like, oh my god, Gamble, I'm asking us if
Speaker 1: we were signed with anybody. And uh so we went
Speaker 1: back to l A and within a month, we UH
Speaker 1: had our attorneys worked and we worked out the deal,
Speaker 1: and within two months we were flown to Philadelphia to
Speaker 1: work on that first Jones Girls album. Yes, that's amazing,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. Wait a minute. Always wanted to know was
Speaker 1: this was this the tour where she would um it
Speaker 1: would start with the video thing with the guys carrying
Speaker 1: her over. No, No, this was before then, because I
Speaker 1: always wanted to know how she did that illusion. No, okay,
Speaker 1: I was a kid, want to see it like a
Speaker 1: long time ago. But yeah, can you also talk about
Speaker 1: like the gig with her and how it was different
Speaker 1: than other background years As far as like she said
Speaker 1: she changed her clothes five times, did you guys get
Speaker 1: to change your clothes? Did you have the same outfit
Speaker 1: you had to wear every night? Or because it was
Speaker 1: Diana Ross, y'all had like a nice rotation. And what
Speaker 1: did she require before every show? As far as rehearsal
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, it's the comparison to everybody else
Speaker 1: you work for. UH, with her being a perfectionist, we
Speaker 1: rehearsed a lot before we would go out on tour
Speaker 1: with her. I mean we rehearsed a lot and yes,
Speaker 1: she did curse. She would come in there and if
Speaker 1: you if the bed. And she never had to curse
Speaker 1: to us because we were gonna be on top of
Speaker 1: our game. But if she would, she would curse them out.
Speaker 1: And I and you know, and I often tell people,
Speaker 1: I said that, Now, if she were a man like
Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra coming out cursing because somebody wasn't doing their
Speaker 1: at a little best and she felt that they should be,
Speaker 1: he'd be applauded. He would be applauded and said, oh,
Speaker 1: he's just such a strong individual. He's he'd make sure that,
Speaker 1: you know. But because she's a woman, and she was
Speaker 1: that demanding at that time, you know, women weren't supposed to,
Speaker 1: you know, come if you don't weren't doing your job.
Speaker 1: You you were supposed to be demure and said well
Speaker 1: would you please? You know, she would come in there
Speaker 1: a person like us saying oh yeah or beyond it
Speaker 1: makes me think of Beyonce is allowed to be today?
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, So I give I give, I give her
Speaker 1: kudos because she was demanding, yes she was, but she
Speaker 1: was also she would she would also make sure that
Speaker 1: she was doing But you know, as far as rehearsing too.
Speaker 1: She was always always immaculate and impeccable. Two people that
Speaker 1: I learned the most from as far as entertaining myself.
Speaker 1: I always say is Diana Ross and Eddie Lebert from
Speaker 1: the o J's because they are show people, absolutely show pepe,
Speaker 1: wait it here? What can Yeah? I want to? I
Speaker 1: want to know for you? Or is it a thing
Speaker 1: where the grass is greener on the other side, do
Speaker 1: you prefer studio sessions or do you prefer uh traveling?
Speaker 1: This I'm talking in strictly in terms of of your
Speaker 1: days as a background singer. As a background singer, I
Speaker 1: prefer being in the studio. Yeah, I prefer being in
Speaker 1: the studio because I'm more of a like. Well, when
Speaker 1: we were traveling doing background for her, that was exciting
Speaker 1: because that was the first time we you know, we're
Speaker 1: traveling doing background and making money. Um, But now, I
Speaker 1: mean I prefer doing studio work versus traveling singing background
Speaker 1: for someone. Isn't it a bigger pressure though in the
Speaker 1: studio because I'm almost certain that there's you know, there's
Speaker 1: really not enough time for you to you borderline, have
Speaker 1: to catch it and perfect it in you know, in
Speaker 1: a short amount of time, I would assume correct, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: in real time. That's one of the reasons why uh
Speaker 1: so many people wanted us to do background because they
Speaker 1: knew that we were going to rehearse so much so
Speaker 1: that when we got in the studio, you know, time
Speaker 1: is money. We we would knock that stuff out just
Speaker 1: like that. That's why some some sometimes we would have
Speaker 1: two and three sessions a day because we were able to.
Speaker 1: We would rehearse and practice our parts for whoever, and
Speaker 1: to make sure that when we went in the studio
Speaker 1: bam bam bam, we could do it. And you know,
Speaker 1: back in the day, you're talking about eight tracks and
Speaker 1: you're talking about not being able to sing one little
Speaker 1: part and they fly it through the song. You had
Speaker 1: to sing that exact same way four and five, you know,
Speaker 1: three to double it and and uh so, And I
Speaker 1: think that's one of the reasons why the artists today,
Speaker 1: the today don't as far as live performances, they cannot
Speaker 1: do it like us that were trained to have to
Speaker 1: sing a song all the way through three and four
Speaker 1: different times to stack that harmony and sound the exact
Speaker 1: same way each time. Right, I agree, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Curious who were your peers or I don't want the competitives,
Speaker 1: but who were the peers who if you can't get
Speaker 1: the Jones sisters, you know, we should call so and
Speaker 1: so the waters. That was it was and it was
Speaker 1: us in California for the longest. Yeah, that was it. Yep. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So what um I know you mentioned working under how
Speaker 1: those are Holland when you came to Los Angeles? What
Speaker 1: year was that we went to Los Angeles in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy five? Yeah, by seventy five seventy six, that's when
Speaker 1: Motown moved and then you know they had given Holland
Speaker 1: Jan Holland the Invictus and the music Merchant labels, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think Motown moved was in seventy seventy and then
Speaker 1: those like McKinley and Holland, dol joh Holland moved out.
Speaker 1: I think. So it was just basically everyone in Detroit
Speaker 1: was migrating to Los Angeles and we might as well
Speaker 1: follow suit and follow them as well, and follow them
Speaker 1: exactly exactly? Could you tell me, like what other notable
Speaker 1: acts were you singing background for that we might not
Speaker 1: be aware of? Helen ready, Uh? Share, Yeah, Helen Ready.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. They somebody just posted it the other day.
Speaker 1: I forgot that song that we did for her, we
Speaker 1: did the entire album, because she just passed I think recently,
Speaker 1: and someone posted it um and share Share like half
Speaker 1: read er take me Home or I forgot what song.
Speaker 1: But the song that we did do for Share, I
Speaker 1: don't think it made the album, but we did a session.
Speaker 1: We did a session because we did two songs with
Speaker 1: her and they never met. I don't think they made
Speaker 1: the album. Now, somebody's gonna probably prove me wrong and
Speaker 1: and posted you know, I know that you've done background
Speaker 1: on some notable Philly international songs as well, So am
Speaker 1: I assume that you're you're basically all the female voices
Speaker 1: that I hear on like You'll never find another love
Speaker 1: like Mine and those those songs as well, like with
Speaker 1: Lou Rolls and now we did do lu Roll's album.
Speaker 1: There was a group of girls in Philadelphia. I can't
Speaker 1: think of their names that we're doing a lot of
Speaker 1: background singing for Gamble in them because once we became
Speaker 1: the Jones girls, you know, we didn't do as much
Speaker 1: background singing for other people. Once we got with Gamble
Speaker 1: and huff in seventy nine, just select people, you know,
Speaker 1: when we had the time, because you know, with You're
Speaker 1: gonna make me love somebody else coming out the box
Speaker 1: being so big, we immediately gamble immediately sent us to
Speaker 1: Ohio with Charlie Atkins, who put the O J's and
Speaker 1: temptations with him, and we uh were, uh, we were
Speaker 1: rehearsing to go out on tour with the o j
Speaker 1: Who Oh yes, oh man, he was, he was and
Speaker 1: I have two left feets, so he was always on me.
Speaker 1: He was constantly on me because I'm not. I was
Speaker 1: the only one that couldn't dance brending. Valie could dance,
Speaker 1: you know, and me, I'd always tried to when I'm
Speaker 1: singing lead anyway, can I just stand on? No, you cannot.
Speaker 1: You're gonna do those harm You're doing them too girl.
Speaker 1: And so oh he was a test and you just
Speaker 1: just eat a banana. Eat a banana before you come
Speaker 1: in here to rehearsal for that potassium so you could
Speaker 1: move those feet. He was a drill mask. I heard
Speaker 1: every every actor has ever worked with him. Wait, what
Speaker 1: what period were you guys? Uh? With Aretha Franklin, we
Speaker 1: did the Almighty Fire album with her. Yes, only only
Speaker 1: say this because the kind of the kind of household
Speaker 1: I grew up in, um I would. I grew up
Speaker 1: with three binge shoppers when it came to records, so
Speaker 1: like every week, stacks and stacks and stacks of forty five,
Speaker 1: stacks and stacks and stacks of thirty threes would come
Speaker 1: in the house. But the thing is is that I
Speaker 1: would get the records that my parents didn't want. So,
Speaker 1: you know, as far as my Wreatha collection, like there
Speaker 1: there was a period like Almighty Fire, the U record
Speaker 1: all the way up to lug Diva, like basically the
Speaker 1: post Sparkle records that really weren't hitting the same I inherited.
Speaker 1: So I know all those like Sweet Passion, like all
Speaker 1: those records that weren't quite you know up there with
Speaker 1: the legacy albums. What was it like? Oh god, and
Speaker 1: she was wearing that Space two yep, the Green Space.
Speaker 1: I remember that that period. Well, what was it like?
Speaker 1: And how intimidating is it you know working with her
Speaker 1: or was she just you know, another Detroit person that
Speaker 1: you could connect with. Well we had sang as children
Speaker 1: at her father's church with my mother. One Sunday when
Speaker 1: we were there. I believe it was one of her
Speaker 1: father's anniversary and we knew that she was gonna be there.
Speaker 1: At that time, she was she was a superstar. She
Speaker 1: had respect out, you know, she was like and they
Speaker 1: said she was going to be at the church. Um
Speaker 1: and after we performed, she came up to my mother
Speaker 1: and said, boy, those are some singing girls you got there.
Speaker 1: And then fast forward like fifteen years later, we were
Speaker 1: doing Almighty Fire. And what a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: know is that when that Sparkle movie was, you know,
Speaker 1: they were looking for the actor the actors and actresses
Speaker 1: for that movie, Aretha Franklin and Kenny Gamble wanted us
Speaker 1: to play the sisters, hiring Hi or Wrentha put pitched
Speaker 1: in for She wanted us to do it because because
Speaker 1: of our voices and we had just sang on on
Speaker 1: her album, and Kenny felt that that would be a
Speaker 1: great We were the you know, the Jones girls. He
Speaker 1: felt that we were just coming out and that would
Speaker 1: be perfect. They sent us to New York and a
Speaker 1: limo and uh, uh it was. I think they both
Speaker 1: were very and I know we were disappointed, especially when
Speaker 1: uh and you know Aretha, she was activists back then,
Speaker 1: especially when those girls they you know, was very light
Speaker 1: bright girls that got the part. Her thing was to
Speaker 1: them was, you know this, this is ridiculous those girls
Speaker 1: can you know? They they have their singers and they
Speaker 1: could be taught to be actresses too, and she she
Speaker 1: was quite upset about that. So there was almos a
Speaker 1: chance that you could have yeah sk yes, you know yeah,
Speaker 1: was there was there ever a background gig that you
Speaker 1: had that was like a little too intimidating or that
Speaker 1: you you know, was just all right to you? Now,
Speaker 1: we we no matter who the artist was, and there
Speaker 1: were a lot of artists that you know, hadn't even
Speaker 1: made it yet. But you know, if we liked the song,
Speaker 1: and you know they were willing to pay, because pay
Speaker 1: the money, you know, we were, um, we would do
Speaker 1: it and we would give our best. And the thing
Speaker 1: that a lot of people don't know is that for
Speaker 1: another reason why so many people liked us is because
Speaker 1: we created a lot of those backgrounds. Um. They knew
Speaker 1: that if they gave us the song, we were going
Speaker 1: to create the background parts. Yeah. I mean some some
Speaker 1: on some for a lot, but now some did come
Speaker 1: with you know specific backgrounds, but our reputation became such
Speaker 1: that they'd be like, Okay, well, hey here's the song.
Speaker 1: What do you guys think you know? And then drop
Speaker 1: a few sure, uh Norman Connors, Um Lou Rawls, Uh,
Speaker 1: who else that that we they let us do, just
Speaker 1: you know, control the background. God, it's so many people
Speaker 1: just songs. But he were just like artists that were like,
Speaker 1: it don't matter what song I'm doing. Let the Jones
Speaker 1: girls come in here and and and do and do
Speaker 1: our thing. Now. Brenda was alive because her memory is
Speaker 1: so much better than mine. She she she can remember
Speaker 1: every single artist we did background on and everything. But
Speaker 1: but me, it gets a little fuzzy sometimes because when
Speaker 1: people post stuff now and I'd be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember that we did do that song, you know.
Speaker 1: So um with with signing to um Philly International, I'll
Speaker 1: say that um probably in my opinion, because you know,
Speaker 1: we my dad purchased all the records and played it
Speaker 1: at the house all the time, I will say that
Speaker 1: you guys were probably given them more contemporary, up to
Speaker 1: date town than a lot of the acts that were
Speaker 1: un Philly International back then. Like it was almost a
Speaker 1: thing where you know, you knew instantly within the first
Speaker 1: two seconds that you were listening to affilly international song
Speaker 1: based on like the trademark of the strings and all
Speaker 1: the mixing of the record or whatever. But like, You're
Speaker 1: gonna make me love somebody else sounded nothing like what Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: especially what was happening in nine. Yeah. It was like
Speaker 1: a woman telling me you better get your ship together,
Speaker 1: right exactly. Yeah, So what, um, I mean, I would
Speaker 1: assume that it's still the same group of people, like
Speaker 1: it's still Extra Ones L and Gamble and Huff and
Speaker 1: all those other well, I know McKinley Jackson also worked
Speaker 1: on the record as well, But like, what was the
Speaker 1: discussion basically on how to present you guys in your sound? Um,
Speaker 1: that's one of the things that I think Gamble and
Speaker 1: Huff they were purposely trying to take us away just
Speaker 1: a little bit for from the the strings and horns
Speaker 1: of like say, like of what they did with three
Speaker 1: degrees three degrees huh, and wanted they wanted us to
Speaker 1: be more funky, more soulful, more R and B. And
Speaker 1: if you noticed the very first Jones Girls album, that's
Speaker 1: exactly I mean. I'm at your mercies on there, which
Speaker 1: is a heart wrenching ballad. Uh. Then of course there's
Speaker 1: You're Gonna make Me Love somebody Else? Yeah, exactly, So yeah,
Speaker 1: who Can I Run To? Us? Yep, what were your
Speaker 1: feelings on? Um? Of course, not what your feelings on
Speaker 1: were you how did it feel? For escape? Too? Sort
Speaker 1: of reintroduced that song on to a whole new generation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I um, when I heard it, when I first
Speaker 1: heard it, it was by that time, it was sixteen years,
Speaker 1: uh future from when we did it, and so many
Speaker 1: I remember so many of the producers and when when
Speaker 1: Gamble back in the day, you know, you had an
Speaker 1: A side and a B side on records, and who
Speaker 1: Can I Run To? Was on the B side. So
Speaker 1: many people did not want Gamble to put that. They said,
Speaker 1: put show love today, put anything on that on on
Speaker 1: the B side of You're Gonna make Me Love somebody else?
Speaker 1: Besides who Can I Run To? Because that is a
Speaker 1: that is a single of its own. But of course
Speaker 1: that didn't happen so uh nine. I mean we you know,
Speaker 1: we were working and and and the girls and I
Speaker 1: had broken up by then, and when we heard um,
Speaker 1: who Can I Run To? I was I was happy actually,
Speaker 1: because back then when their record came out, there were
Speaker 1: so many DJs that were, you know, into new that
Speaker 1: we had done it first, because people used to flip
Speaker 1: it on the radio sometimes and and play who can
Speaker 1: I Run to? So what they would do is like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, you guys love this one buying Escape, but
Speaker 1: guess what Escape didn't do it first? That joone. Then
Speaker 1: they would play our version two and have people call
Speaker 1: in which version they liked the best, and all of that,
Speaker 1: and uh, I happened to, uh, the girls want a
Speaker 1: radio show some years back, and they said, we hope
Speaker 1: we did a good job. We but but we just
Speaker 1: love you guys and love you all sound and and
Speaker 1: I told them, I said, you all did a great
Speaker 1: job because what you did was you brought back a
Speaker 1: lot of attention to the Jones girls. And so I
Speaker 1: was I was saying. I told them, I said, so, hey,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you all, because it brought back some
Speaker 1: attention because I mean up until you know, from sixteen
Speaker 1: years later, you know, we had kind of died out,
Speaker 1: like we weren't together anymore. We had we would do
Speaker 1: some things occasionally over in Europe, but it was it
Speaker 1: brought back a lot of attention and put that Jones
Speaker 1: girl's name back out there. I'm wondering how Dexter and
Speaker 1: Gambling have worked in a writing sense, in the sense
Speaker 1: of they're writing all these these kind of like female
Speaker 1: run these songs for women. Did they ever do you
Speaker 1: ever get to say anything about a lyricy? Did you
Speaker 1: ever get to say, well, I don't know if she
Speaker 1: was saying like this, but she might say it like that,
Speaker 1: or did you It was it always just their words,
Speaker 1: sing it, let's go. Oh No, it was they They
Speaker 1: allowed us to put in it, you know, just like, um,
Speaker 1: I just love the man. When when we were in
Speaker 1: the studio doing I Just Loved the Man, there was
Speaker 1: no talking upfront at all. Uh, And Gamble kept saying yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, gainb well, Gamble kept saying right. Gamble said
Speaker 1: the song is great and I love it, but something
Speaker 1: is missing. Now. Little did we know he was in
Speaker 1: the control booth and I was going through some things, uh,
Speaker 1: in my relationship with McKinley at the time, and the
Speaker 1: my my sisters were and we didn't know. Our mics
Speaker 1: were open and they were like girl, they were like, girl,
Speaker 1: you were so sick of you and and McKinley and
Speaker 1: all this drama. You know, you just need to leave him,
Speaker 1: and you know, Mama said it. And then Kenney said,
Speaker 1: that's what we need. We need that right there, that's
Speaker 1: what we need. I'm serious now. And then and he
Speaker 1: told yeah, we didn't know he was listening to us,
Speaker 1: and he said that's what we need. Could take a break,
Speaker 1: take a break. So we went in and wrote, wrote,
Speaker 1: you know, wrote out what we were saying, and and
Speaker 1: that's how those talking parts got in. There always be recording. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how that's the first time that you did your
Speaker 1: infamous Shirley Jones. Yes, talking man. People don't shop talking
Speaker 1: to me in the beginning, no more, and espectly especially
Speaker 1: with women, not since the days of Barbara Mason and
Speaker 1: the Woman. Yeah, like yeah, or or Dorothy Moore or right.
Speaker 1: Aren't you bringing back interlude culture? Right? Yes, I'm bringing
Speaker 1: back any bad exactly. I will bring it back. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know at the time when when you're recording these records,
Speaker 1: I know that. Well. You mentioned earlier that your album
Speaker 1: is more funk based instead of disco based. Was it
Speaker 1: also intentional too, even though seventy nine was still you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a heavy disco tornado still happening. Was it
Speaker 1: sort of uh pre planned for you guys to not
Speaker 1: lean so heavy the disco more into what I what
Speaker 1: I call boogie or or funk funk. Yes, it was
Speaker 1: because we kept I mean disco kind of like exploded
Speaker 1: right there with You're Gonna make Me Love Somebody Else,
Speaker 1: and and we were they would want us to perform
Speaker 1: in in clubs like Studio fifty four and all those places,
Speaker 1: and we didn't really want to perform You're Gonna make
Speaker 1: Me Love Somebody Else because it didn't have that that
Speaker 1: disco tempo to us, we thought. But but it became
Speaker 1: a big disco record, and so studio those different studios
Speaker 1: and York in different places would have us coming. But
Speaker 1: we would always tell gamble. We thought it was a
Speaker 1: little slow for a disco, but hey, they did a
Speaker 1: remix that was like twelve and twelve minutes long or something,
Speaker 1: and that was the disco version. So that's how it
Speaker 1: became popular. Wait, can I add one thing? So when
Speaker 1: you guys are touring, I always wanted to know this because, um,
Speaker 1: you guys would also or at least to me, you
Speaker 1: know you would you would stack your background parts on
Speaker 1: your records and also have counterparts singing with you, and
Speaker 1: always wanted to know how you guys pulled that off
Speaker 1: live when it was just three of you. But then
Speaker 1: I thought, well, this is the three of you, then
Speaker 1: obviously you would also have to have background singers for
Speaker 1: you guys as well, And was that how you handled it?
Speaker 1: But no, no, we did. Really when we would conduce
Speaker 1: it down for stage, we would take the heavy, the
Speaker 1: parts that we know people wanted to hear. And it
Speaker 1: was the hardest thing for me because I'm the top
Speaker 1: note and and I was singing lead and then having
Speaker 1: to jump back. That's why now when I traveled, I
Speaker 1: have three background singers that I have trained that have
Speaker 1: been with me for ten years and they know all
Speaker 1: the back call my Little Jones girls because they know
Speaker 1: all our parts and everything, and which frees me up
Speaker 1: to be able to do my thing vocally. But it
Speaker 1: was so hard. But because we always insisted on doing
Speaker 1: our own backgrounds, we didn't want to have anybody else
Speaker 1: on the side doing doing our and the only time
Speaker 1: we kind of got away from it, we had a
Speaker 1: uh uh female m d Myra that played keyboards and
Speaker 1: she would sing my top note. She was with us
Speaker 1: for maybe almost a year, and that I was able
Speaker 1: to really get into my leads and stuff. And then
Speaker 1: when she was r M D but that was only
Speaker 1: for about a year. Wow, Okay. I always wanted to
Speaker 1: do that because like, again, you guys are so intricate
Speaker 1: with the June Girls sound of stacking right that I
Speaker 1: was like, well, if it's three of them, you know,
Speaker 1: on stage, then I know there hasn't been an additional
Speaker 1: three voices to help all those counterparts that are swimming
Speaker 1: around in the song as well. Know. But were we
Speaker 1: because of the insistence of us never wanting anybody to
Speaker 1: to do our backgrounds And Charlie Atkins he was like no,
Speaker 1: because yeah, and have us dancing and then you know,
Speaker 1: and then um they back in the day, we just
Speaker 1: didn't want it. We didn't want any background singers. We
Speaker 1: wanted people to to hear us, and we because we practiced,
Speaker 1: I mean seven and especially when we want the road,
Speaker 1: we'll be in the practice and right before the right
Speaker 1: before you're hitting the stage, just to make sure that
Speaker 1: everybody's voices were on you know, on top of what's
Speaker 1: because of what we were getting ready to do. So
Speaker 1: another question I have is, because there's so many writing
Speaker 1: teams at Ambule and huff how how how are the
Speaker 1: decisions made on who you're going to work with? Like
Speaker 1: do you guys say, hey, we we like what Cynthia
Speaker 1: has for us, so let's work with Cynthia Dexter Or
Speaker 1: it's like mcfadd and white Hand, Like there's so many
Speaker 1: teams there, how do you We had a And in
Speaker 1: fact it was so impressive when our first day we
Speaker 1: took that elevator up on three the crink that that
Speaker 1: little creaky elevator up on three up three O nine
Speaker 1: and they get street Broad Street. They I went to
Speaker 1: elementary school right next door at Performing Arts right okay,
Speaker 1: right up the street. Yeah yeah, yeah. And they gave
Speaker 1: us a schedule. Everybody had little office offices with a
Speaker 1: keyboard and a recorder. They gave us a schedule like
Speaker 1: from from ten to twelve we were gonna be with
Speaker 1: Dexter and Cynthia from uh that Tait and then take lunch,
Speaker 1: and then from two to four we be with Met
Speaker 1: Fattening white Head uh and then from six to eight
Speaker 1: we would be with Joe Jefferson, Charlie Boy Simmons. Uh,
Speaker 1: the guys that did, who can I run to? Then uh,
Speaker 1: every every writer and producer got a chance to submit
Speaker 1: their songs within those two hours. And then the next
Speaker 1: day the schedule will start all over it because it
Speaker 1: was so many of them, and then of the and
Speaker 1: then of course also during that time, we would uh
Speaker 1: Gamble and Huff had written their songs, and we would
Speaker 1: get with everybody and we would do little demos of
Speaker 1: the ones that we liked, uh you know, that we
Speaker 1: wanted to do, And then that's how we would uh
Speaker 1: choose which ones we're going to be recorded. We sit
Speaker 1: down with Gamble and Huff at the end of the
Speaker 1: week and they say, well this, we think you all
Speaker 1: should do this one, this one, this one. Can you
Speaker 1: tell us, um what was the I really don't know,
Speaker 1: Like I've always seen Cynthia Bigg's names on credit forever,
Speaker 1: but she's probably the only Philly luminary that I've yet
Speaker 1: to meet or yes, and I tell her all the time,
Speaker 1: she to me is the most underrated writer because she's
Speaker 1: like a Carol King to me, that girl because oh
Speaker 1: my god, yes, I mean love t k O. If
Speaker 1: only you knew living all alone I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: all of her songs are such classics, and you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't don't realize that, you know,
Speaker 1: because of course she was writing partner with Dexter ones
Speaker 1: out and everybody know dex exactly. But when she was
Speaker 1: telling us how she went to the library to study
Speaker 1: the Egypt during the time of writing, um, of writing
Speaker 1: nights over Egypt because she wanted to make sure or
Speaker 1: that she was lyrically writing to that time period. I
Speaker 1: knew then I'm like this girl, you know. And I've
Speaker 1: gone yeah, and I've gone on to to do demos
Speaker 1: for her on so many beautiful, absolutely beautiful songs that
Speaker 1: um it didn't come out. But I mean, she's incredible
Speaker 1: and absolutely incredible writer. And y'all still speak Sirley, And
Speaker 1: you know where where is she? Oh she's in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Yeah, we gotta find her. I can. I
Speaker 1: can get you in touch with her, absolutely, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because she's she's been written way too many hits. There's
Speaker 1: there's the one song, Um yeah, there's one song I've
Speaker 1: always always been curious about. On your second record, on
Speaker 1: On a Piece of a Woman, there's a song called
Speaker 1: Let's Celebrate m sitting on top of the world. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1: So the thing is is that I know on the
Speaker 1: rightest credit that I saw both Lou Raws and Teddy
Speaker 1: Pendergrass's knee in the writer's credit. Yeah, they put I
Speaker 1: think it was what was that writing session? Like, like,
Speaker 1: was that real or was that a type of or
Speaker 1: I think because Cynthia, I think that was, to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, In fact, I'm almost sure God they
Speaker 1: put like a lyric or two in there and one
Speaker 1: you know, and because of their name at the time, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they put you know, a few, few, little few of
Speaker 1: the lyrics in there, right. Yeah, it was room bureaucracy,
Speaker 1: you know. But it's just so unusual to see it's
Speaker 1: so random, Like wait, I can't imagine rows Teddy Pendergrass
Speaker 1: right legal at a piano. Yeah, now that's just that's
Speaker 1: just like Cynthia wrote up Love t k O. But
Speaker 1: but Teddy, I think Teddy's name got on there too,
Speaker 1: or no gamble named getting the Gambles Man Womack and
Speaker 1: Mac Yeah, no, oh no, we gotta find Cynthia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we got find Cynthia. Yeah, I I've definitely um, Laila,
Speaker 1: I'll sent you her number. Well, I'm gonna get in
Speaker 1: contact with her first because we haven't spoken for a while.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I will, yeah and get and get you
Speaker 1: her number and her information. She would love to do it. Yes, that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you know, probably when when the
Speaker 1: smoke clears, I would say that the average Jones girlfan
Speaker 1: will always put nights over Egypt as they're almost their
Speaker 1: top song, which was so unusual at the time. Yes,
Speaker 1: what the genesis of the song and how did it
Speaker 1: wind up in your hands? Well, it wound up in
Speaker 1: our hands. Dextra and Cynthia presented it to us and
Speaker 1: we actually ended up court recording it thanks to my
Speaker 1: baby sister Valerie, because Brenda and I did not want
Speaker 1: to do the song. We thought it was too jazzy
Speaker 1: and coming behind I just loved the man and You're
Speaker 1: gonna make me love somebody else. We thought it was
Speaker 1: too jazzy. So we sat down and uh, we had
Speaker 1: a comment. It was like from Brenda, Valerie, myself, Dexter
Speaker 1: and Cynthia, and we said, well that I said, because
Speaker 1: it's I said, the music is just all it's so different.
Speaker 1: It's so different, and Dexter said, yes, it is, and
Speaker 1: so then Valerie said, so it's beautiful. She says, so
Speaker 1: what we should do is do a different type of
Speaker 1: back of singing on it. And we're like what Valerie,
Speaker 1: And so we after talking, she said why not have
Speaker 1: no lead singer? But you know how Mom always said,
Speaker 1: let's let let the unisons and harmonies be a lead.
Speaker 1: And then with me and Brenda and I said hello,
Speaker 1: and then Dexa and Cynthia said hey, that's that's and
Speaker 1: let's let's try that. We went in the studio to aches.
Speaker 1: After rehearsing, Brendan, Valery and I got together and we
Speaker 1: did We decided where we were gonna do the units
Speaker 1: and where we were gonna do the harmonies. Two takes.
Speaker 1: It took us, and it was done. I knew then
Speaker 1: that that was a special song because a lot of
Speaker 1: the other songs like You're Gonna Make Me Love Somebody
Speaker 1: Else and who Can I Run to? It took more
Speaker 1: takes than than two to get it right to the
Speaker 1: plane of where everybody felt comfortable that this was a hit.
Speaker 1: But it was just two takes with nights over Egypt. Wow,
Speaker 1: Yeah for me, what that's like? Yeah? And it's amazing too,
Speaker 1: because it was actually the third single. Valeriees also the
Speaker 1: one that said that should be the first single. Uh
Speaker 1: and but during that time, Bamber and Huff always had
Speaker 1: to have the first single on the Jones Girls, and
Speaker 1: then it just become but Valerie, she was so upset,
Speaker 1: Nights Over Egypt should be the first single off of
Speaker 1: that get as Much Love as you Can now. But
Speaker 1: and it actually came off as a third single. And
Speaker 1: that's only because Quiet Storm just forgot about finally found
Speaker 1: that man of mind and get as as Love as
Speaker 1: you Can singles, and they everybody across the country's just
Speaker 1: started playing Nights Over each other? Yeah, Quiet Storm Radio.
Speaker 1: Was there ever a debate about that intro? Like, y'all,
Speaker 1: was there ever a debate like this is way too long,
Speaker 1: we need to come into it? Was it or didn't?
Speaker 1: From the moment you heard the intro, you were like,
Speaker 1: all right, that makes I mean, I know you thought
Speaker 1: it was crazy when you first heard it. But when
Speaker 1: y'all all together for the song the Hunt, no we
Speaker 1: we we were, I mean we were grooving off of it.
Speaker 1: And but the breakdown, you know, when I do it
Speaker 1: on stage the first time I tried to must be
Speaker 1: your nightmare? For your being Oh my god, not oh
Speaker 1: and I right, they have to get it right. And
Speaker 1: then when I when I cut it down to um,
Speaker 1: you know, to take out the instrumental part, oh my god,
Speaker 1: they would all like, no, you can't take this. Let's
Speaker 1: get that, you know. So I had oh man, but
Speaker 1: I've let keyboard players go auditioning for me because they
Speaker 1: couldn't get it. They could not get it right. It
Speaker 1: has to be right. They would do everything like now
Speaker 1: and and Dexter would laugh. I said Dexter that when
Speaker 1: when keyboard players auditioned, if they don't get it, they're
Speaker 1: out of there. I can't don't don't right? That turned around, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can your beings right now? Sweat and looping that
Speaker 1: over and over and over again. I do not want
Speaker 1: to be the m D for that particular right in
Speaker 1: in eighty three, you guys made a curious move, okay
Speaker 1: for starters. Can you explain, because you're probably the first
Speaker 1: Philly international artist that we've had pre eight one on
Speaker 1: the show, can you explain to me how the after
Speaker 1: effect of Teddy Pendergrass's car accident affected the entire label,
Speaker 1: because I can only assume that there was a slow
Speaker 1: implosion Affilier International after eight two because most acts will
Speaker 1: half the acts will leave the label a year later. Um.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know the signature gambling huf sound even
Speaker 1: though Paddle a Bill sort of kept the the lights on,
Speaker 1: if you will, um pretty much. You know, every act
Speaker 1: was was going elsewhere. Uh, you know, to to figure
Speaker 1: the eighties out. So did did this accident actually have
Speaker 1: an effect on the entire label as far as it
Speaker 1: being a label being operational as far as in the
Speaker 1: eyes of well, I knew that Clive Davis wasn't running
Speaker 1: Filly in the National at the end of its running.
Speaker 1: He signed the label to Colombia in seventy three. But yeah,
Speaker 1: what what was just what was the general atmosphere of
Speaker 1: the label in the late two Yeah, that accident was
Speaker 1: that was It affected the label because I mean Teddy
Speaker 1: Teddy was the he was the hot guy. You know,
Speaker 1: he was the main the main success at that point.
Speaker 1: And I mean we were we were doing okay, though
Speaker 1: Jay's I think they were getting ready to leave, if
Speaker 1: they hadn't already left, and I think Billy Paul had
Speaker 1: left or was in the process of leaving UM and
Speaker 1: things were just changing. I mean Disco by this time
Speaker 1: was just taking it had taken over everything, and and
Speaker 1: Gamble and Huff was still writing basic h R and B.
Speaker 1: You know the that that sound. Um, so it affected
Speaker 1: it to the point where I think that was when
Speaker 1: when Philly International really started, um going down and we
Speaker 1: of course, um, we weren't sure if Kenny was going
Speaker 1: to resign us, and we were having a lot of
Speaker 1: internal by this time, we were having a lot of
Speaker 1: internal problems group. And my sisters and I yes, as sisters,
Speaker 1: and um, well that's the one question I didn't ask
Speaker 1: how how do you guys navigate as a group as
Speaker 1: business partners but also you know, as I mean your
Speaker 1: sisters at the you know, at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: So it's almost like you don't have an option to
Speaker 1: not to go to bed angry about something or yeah,
Speaker 1: we didn't. For for a long time. Everything was fine, um,
Speaker 1: but then after the second album, we it became you
Speaker 1: know more and more, uh pronounce certain certain things that
Speaker 1: that we were dealing with internally, and uh we decided
Speaker 1: that's uh. And a lot of it was over who
Speaker 1: was gonna who was gonna be lead singer was yeah,
Speaker 1: because I know the whole thing, like, let's all be unison.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, it's like someone
Speaker 1: at the label has to be like, look y'all, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to focus on somebody here, so we'll see.
Speaker 1: What happened was when we went into Gamble and Huff.
Speaker 1: My sisters were so used to all of us sharing
Speaker 1: lead and everything, but Gamble and Huff who had to
Speaker 1: had to sit Brenda down in particular because they had
Speaker 1: always been this thing that she felt she should be
Speaker 1: the lead singer. But after the first album and the
Speaker 1: success of that first album, Kenny had to tell Brenda that,
Speaker 1: he said loud, every group has a signature voice now,
Speaker 1: and we feel that the most commercial signature voice for
Speaker 1: the Jones Girls and Shurely, So yes, we're gonna, We're gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, have you do some songs, but the bulk
Speaker 1: of the songs we want, we want Shorley to do.
Speaker 1: And that was always an issue between Brenda and I
Speaker 1: um and that that was the main cause of us
Speaker 1: breaking up for the final time. Yes on the third album,
Speaker 1: not the third album, the fourth album on Target. I
Speaker 1: know that you guys went to our c A. What
Speaker 1: caused the split from International and week we weren't sure
Speaker 1: that he was gonna sign us, and Brenda uh became
Speaker 1: friends with Robert Wright, who's now deceased, and and Fanzie
Speaker 1: Thornton Um. Robert was yes, my Fanzie and he um.
Speaker 1: Robert Wright and Fonzi got together and Robert was the
Speaker 1: head of r c A at that point, and he
Speaker 1: and Brenda had become friends, and I think he had
Speaker 1: kind of told her, you know, that cheap it would
Speaker 1: be more equal um leads. Yeah, So we got over
Speaker 1: there and the same situation happened once. Once they would
Speaker 1: hear my voice on the songs that Fonzi and Robert
Speaker 1: wrote they wanted me, and that set up an issue
Speaker 1: between Brenda and Robert and me. And then you know,
Speaker 1: and that's why it was just that one album. But
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is is that we had an album
Speaker 1: in the can at Philly International that Kenny Burke had done,
Speaker 1: Keep It Coming, Yeah, and he gamble released that in
Speaker 1: that album. He released that like three months after our
Speaker 1: c A, I think, and that album did better than
Speaker 1: the Ontargot album. So and then and then from there, Uh,
Speaker 1: that's when the group broke up totally, you know. And
Speaker 1: and then I Gamble called me to come back to
Speaker 1: do my solo project. Yeah, I know, I know that,
Speaker 1: um oftentimes, and you know, it's it's always like the
Speaker 1: similar to the supreme situation where it's like sometimes the
Speaker 1: best singer or the most the best singer or the
Speaker 1: best voice of the strongest voice, whatever, it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: the most commercial voice. And a lot of times people don't,
Speaker 1: you know, I think people understand in hindsight, yes, after
Speaker 1: the fact, after the fact. And I would tell Brenda
Speaker 1: all the time. Brenda has that really mid tone tones
Speaker 1: in her voice, but she could also sing very high,
Speaker 1: but her voice is so full, and I used to
Speaker 1: tell her, you have a beautiful voice. You could just
Speaker 1: you know, do do the songs that they that they
Speaker 1: put Like I closed my eyes on one of the
Speaker 1: album she's doing and uh, that Keep It Coming album.
Speaker 1: You can hear the tones in her voice that were
Speaker 1: just rich and that that's why I couldn't understand why
Speaker 1: she just always, always always it was such a battle too.
Speaker 1: Or even when I the UH for Unsung, when Kenny
Speaker 1: and I were talking about when he was getting ready
Speaker 1: to do his own song part, he said, you know,
Speaker 1: I never thought Brenda liked me when after after I
Speaker 1: sat down and told you all that it was your voice,
Speaker 1: he said, I don't think she ever really liked me.
Speaker 1: I said, well, Kenny, I don't think she liked me either,
Speaker 1: and I was a sister. But because that, that was
Speaker 1: a hard conversation that he did, but he had to
Speaker 1: have it. So I'm curious too, though, because you guys
Speaker 1: have been singing since you guys were a little even
Speaker 1: in with your mom, was there ever any conversations to
Speaker 1: help prevent these kind of moments like listen, girls, they're
Speaker 1: gonna try to break you up or listen girls. Somebody
Speaker 1: makes sure she did. She did, My mom did, and
Speaker 1: we I mean we were the best of friends. Uh
Speaker 1: we never uh fought because she always said don't fight.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, verbally we would go at each other,
Speaker 1: but we would never physically because you know, we we
Speaker 1: weren't raised in that kind of environment. But um, both
Speaker 1: of my sisters, which runs in our family, both had
Speaker 1: serious alcohol problems that developed with Valerie. It started, you
Speaker 1: know with the ending part with Diana Ross and we
Speaker 1: found out about that a little later, but then with
Speaker 1: both for them, once we really after that once that
Speaker 1: first Jones girls record, it just became more and more prevalent,
Speaker 1: and that and and then the jealousy issues as far
Speaker 1: as leading is what broke broke the group up and
Speaker 1: is what killed both of my sisters. Alcohol. Well, Brenda
Speaker 1: was struck by three cars, but it was because as
Speaker 1: far as I as far as I know, all I
Speaker 1: know is that the police officers that had seen told
Speaker 1: me that that day. Earlier in the day, they had
Speaker 1: seen her walking down the street crying in Dover, Delaware,
Speaker 1: and they took her back to her hotel and told
Speaker 1: her because they said she let him in and everything,
Speaker 1: and they told her, please, you know, stay in your room,
Speaker 1: contact your daughter, but don't go back out. And I
Speaker 1: told them, I God, I wish they had had my
Speaker 1: number or something at that time, because she was not
Speaker 1: gonna stay in that room, you know. Um, So that
Speaker 1: that that's what That's what happened there in in two
Speaker 1: seventeen with her Valerie uh in two in two thousand one,
Speaker 1: uh she had she had just said that she was
Speaker 1: not going to she was she wanted my mom to
Speaker 1: check her in because she was tired and she really
Speaker 1: wanted She knew that bren and I were talking about
Speaker 1: maybe doing something together with her again. And in two
Speaker 1: thousand one and she had just said, well Monday, I
Speaker 1: want you to take me um and she died from
Speaker 1: you know, from her liver um. Yeah, conversation we had
Speaker 1: about the Olympics and people taking a mental break, totally
Speaker 1: mental health. And then and that's why I um, I
Speaker 1: told the people from Unsung. You know, they did a
Speaker 1: great job of telling the story because both of my sisters,
Speaker 1: the drinking and and then the Brenda's in Brenda's case,
Speaker 1: taking those opioids because uh to to just kill the pain.
Speaker 1: She was constantly in pain, she said, and instead of
Speaker 1: getting the help that she needed it. But but with
Speaker 1: her it, I was constantly telling her, Brenda, you're in
Speaker 1: pain because you really don't need more alcohol or another pill.
Speaker 1: You need to go talk to somebody. And she I said, come,
Speaker 1: you know, come talk to me. Come come, you know,
Speaker 1: we could talk, but she she wasn't ready, she wasn't
Speaker 1: ready to admit what was happening. And you know she's
Speaker 1: no longer here because of it. And then her both
Speaker 1: of her daughters were in denial too, and I told them,
Speaker 1: I said, you guys are the only ones that could
Speaker 1: physically take her somewhere to get help and they refused
Speaker 1: to do it. Wow, yeah, that's important, Like, oh, you
Speaker 1: have to And it's because mentally, like you know, this
Speaker 1: pandemic and this year and a half of just being
Speaker 1: in the house has almost driven me crazy. But I
Speaker 1: have a firm foundation. You know, I got my grand
Speaker 1: I got three grand babies, little ones, a seven month
Speaker 1: old and to three year olds that you know, they
Speaker 1: give me all the life that you took to want
Speaker 1: to keep you stay out there exactly. That's important. Um,
Speaker 1: We're like, so were you able at all to just
Speaker 1: have sort of a moment of reconciliation with them after
Speaker 1: after the group? Yeah, and even um, I want to say,
Speaker 1: before Valerie passed, she we we She and I were.
Speaker 1: We were on good terms because of the boys. We
Speaker 1: both have sons that are both in the music business,
Speaker 1: and they just they got an e p K out
Speaker 1: now doing uh six of our songs hip hop style
Speaker 1: Cameron and uh Cameron and PJ. And then with Brenda
Speaker 1: thank god we had. She and I had not spoken
Speaker 1: about for about three or four years, and right Sien
Speaker 1: we started speaking again and talking and seen. Um. The
Speaker 1: year that she passed, it was April three of seventeen,
Speaker 1: she was coming. I was doing Essence. Mary J. Blanche
Speaker 1: got me on the Essence Music Festival, and I had
Speaker 1: just told her Diana was there the night before, and
Speaker 1: she said, surely, why don't we go. I'll meet you
Speaker 1: there and we'll go backstage and say hi to Diana.
Speaker 1: And I said okay, I said, and don't be surprised
Speaker 1: if I bring you up on stage to perform with me. Uh.
Speaker 1: The next night, I said, so are you ready? She said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. I'm ready. Um, but she says, so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna meet you there. I said, I'm but yes. I
Speaker 1: knew she was still having issues, but I felt that
Speaker 1: if she, if I could get her there, that would help,
Speaker 1: you know, encourage her, especially to yeah, you know, to
Speaker 1: to see the love that people have for the group.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that night before she passed, we had just
Speaker 1: talked and I said, okay, now, um, yeah, I'm ready
Speaker 1: to get your plane tickets so you could fly because
Speaker 1: she was in she was in Uh. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I thought she was in New York, but she was
Speaker 1: in Dover, Delaware with her daughter. And she says, all right, Well,
Speaker 1: I said, so I'm gonna call you tomorrow and give
Speaker 1: you the plane information. And then eleven o'clock that morning, Um,
Speaker 1: is when I got the phone call that she had
Speaker 1: three cars. So yeah, yeah, but you know, I I
Speaker 1: feel them every time I'm on stage, every time I'm
Speaker 1: in the studio, and I'd be laughing sometimes because I
Speaker 1: I hear Valerie drilling me till my sureley that that
Speaker 1: notices a little sharp you need to come down, or
Speaker 1: and you know, or Brenda cracking some kind of jokes.
Speaker 1: So that's that's one of the reasons. It's my therapy
Speaker 1: is continuing the legacy and and singing, you know, singing
Speaker 1: and performing for the audiences. Um can I ask, what
Speaker 1: what did it feel like when you struck out on
Speaker 1: your own and finally got your number one song? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I was, Uh, you're talking about excited because uh, we
Speaker 1: had never had a number one. We had had like
Speaker 1: a number three and number five, you know, but we
Speaker 1: had never had a number one. And when they called
Speaker 1: me and told me that it had went to number one, Uh,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, you don't you can't. Now.
Speaker 1: I was in Chicago on my way up to do
Speaker 1: an interview for Jet magazine and um. Once we got
Speaker 1: up there is when Nick Kenny called to say, you
Speaker 1: got the number one record, girl, And I'm like, what
Speaker 1: you know? And I think because I think us in
Speaker 1: Sweet Love had been battling, uh going up and then
Speaker 1: uh it stayed there for a couple of weeks, and
Speaker 1: I was happy, so happy about that. Now. The first
Speaker 1: performance was scary because I called myself. I went back
Speaker 1: to Charlie Atkins and and he said, well, let's just
Speaker 1: take it a completely you you don't have to dance now,
Speaker 1: baby you. But but I decided to have, um, two
Speaker 1: guys and a girl so that to take away from
Speaker 1: the Jones girls as background singers, and he put a
Speaker 1: terrific show together. Um. And the first night I was
Speaker 1: so scared. It was in in d C at Constitution Hall.
Speaker 1: I was with Maize and Yeah and I and it
Speaker 1: was you know, I was like, I don't know how
Speaker 1: people are gonna accept, you know, the two guys and
Speaker 1: a girl and me, especially when I'm doing most of
Speaker 1: the songs. I mean, what Joe. I had to do
Speaker 1: Jones girl stuff because do you get enough? Love was
Speaker 1: the only thing I had had. And when I, um,
Speaker 1: when I did it, when I did it. At getting
Speaker 1: ready to leave my hotel room, they brought up like
Speaker 1: two dozen yellow roses from Diana Ross and she said,
Speaker 1: get it, go get them girl number one and I
Speaker 1: and I yeah, you know, and I was. It made
Speaker 1: me feel so good just to go out there and perform.
Speaker 1: And I did. I did good. I mean I toured
Speaker 1: with them for seven months, so that makes to it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did good. I guess including I don't ask like
Speaker 1: what what do you what do you want or or
Speaker 1: or is there uh, sort of like a bucket list
Speaker 1: achievement that you you yet to do, that you would
Speaker 1: like to do, or what is it in the legacy
Speaker 1: of the Jones Girls. Do you want the world to know?
Speaker 1: I want the world to know that the Jones Girls
Speaker 1: recognized and realized that we were blessed with three absolutely
Speaker 1: beautiful voices that blended so well together. And we knew that,
Speaker 1: and we also worked and practiced and practiced and practiced
Speaker 1: for that sound. And the reason why we practiced for
Speaker 1: that sound was to bring people the most beautiful harmonic
Speaker 1: music that at the end of the day, at the
Speaker 1: end of the show, at the end of the record,
Speaker 1: they could they would say wow, they would feel uplifted,
Speaker 1: they would feel enlightened, and they would just feel joy
Speaker 1: and would just smile because that was the goal for me,
Speaker 1: my sisters and my goal now no matter what I do,
Speaker 1: I just want when I'm performing, all I want to
Speaker 1: do at the end of the day is for people
Speaker 1: to smile and say, man, we had a great time
Speaker 1: with that Jones girls experience. So that's it. That's beautiful.
Speaker 1: That's beautiful. We thank you absolutely, thank you. We thank
Speaker 1: you for your music and your your talent, and you know,
Speaker 1: and your your sisters as well, and your your family
Speaker 1: and you know up holding up holding the sound of
Speaker 1: Philadelphia hometowns. Yes, that's Philly sound man, uh some of
Speaker 1: some Someone one of my fans said, Motown music had
Speaker 1: my mind, Philadelphia music has my soul and my spirit. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there you go. Yeah the drop for you right there.
Speaker 1: I want to be a Stralia Jones. This is Quest
Speaker 1: Love and on you have to Sugar Steve and unpaid
Speaker 1: Bill Fontagelo and yeah, we thank you, uh for another
Speaker 1: great episode of Quest Love Supreme. We will see you
Speaker 1: guys on the next go round. Thank you all. Thank yo.
Speaker 1: What's up? This is Fonte. Make sure you keep up
Speaker 1: with us on Instagram at QLs and let us know
Speaker 1: what you think and who should be next to sit
Speaker 1: down with us. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast
Speaker 1: right What's Love Supreme is a production of my Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
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