Bobby Jameson's Story

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In 1963 I made my first record. It was called "Let's Surf/Please Little Girl Take This Lollypop". It was a big hit in Truckee CA.. I actually went there in 1963 to a high school dance and lip synced the record while standing on a lunch table. "Ahh show business." My next record was in 1964 and it was called "I'm So Lonely/I wanna Love You." that record was preceded by a 9 week Billboard and Cashbox ad campaign that took me from unknown to known and the record was#1 throughout the midwest and parts of Canada. After viewing Tony Alamo's christian conversion, he was the guy who put the ads in Billboard and Cashbox, I found that working with Tony was impossible. I had received a letter from Andrew Loog Oldham,who was producing The Rolling Stones in 1964, offering me an opportunity if I should ever come to England. A couple of month's later I was there. I met Mick Jagger, Chrissy Shrimpton, Jaggers girlfriend, and Andrew Oldham a few days after I arrived. We went into the studio almost immediately and recorded All I Want Is My Baby/Each And Every Day". I was unhappy with "All I Want Is My Baby" because I never got to learn the song before it ended up as a release on Decca Records. I had to go on British T.V. and lip sync it even though I made it clear to Andrew that it could have been a lot better. There is some controversy as to whether the guitar solo on that recording is early Jimmey Page or Keith Richards. My opinion is that it is Page who Oldham borrowed from a group called the Poets. Following that record I moved over to Brit Records which was the forerunner of Island Records. I wrote and recorded "Rum Pum Mum Num/I Wanna Know in the latter part of 1964 and beginning of 65. It was pretty much a bubble gum recording and again I did alot of tv and magazine promotion for it. Seeing that the direction of my carreer was not going where I wanted, I pretty much sabotaged it, for a reason to leave England. I learned that trick from P.J. Proby, who used to rip his pants on stage as a publicity stunt. I used to talk to P.J., who was from Texas, and he said he'd been in England long enough and he'd just keep ripping his pants in public till they threw him out of the country, which they did. I returned to America after almost a year in England. I met a girl named Pam Burns who was Randy Woods secretary at Mira Records. Mira had a budget label that they put stuff on they weren't sure what to do with. One of the recordings they had scheduled for release in Europe was "Songs Of Protest And Anti Protest" by Chris Ducey. Mira ran into contract difficulties with Ducey, but they still had thousands of album jackets printed and a European release date to honor. They figured out that they could alter the album covers to say Chris Lucey instead of Chris Ducey so they did that. Now all they needed was someone to be Chris Lucey. Pam Burns convinced Randy Wood to let me give it a try, cause he was runnung out of time. I had to rewrite all of Ducey's songs, the titles were already printed on the covers, and record the whole album in a couple of weeks, which I did. Marshall Lieb, who had worked with Phil Specter at one time, was hired to produce the album. The album turned out better than Randy Wood expected and he attempted to sign me to a long term contract, which I refused to do. There was never any contract between me and Surrey Records and Randy Wood. I had been hired to rewrite Ducey's songs and sing them, that's all. For the next 6 months Randy had to endure me hanging around Mira-Surrey's offices because part of the deal he had orriginally made with me was, if I did the Lucey album and it turned out ok he would let me cut a record(single) and release it on Mira. Pam Burns made him keep his promise. I wrote and recorded Vietnam/Metropolitan Man and it was released as a single on Mira Records. DJ's in LA refused to play it because it was "anti-American and too political" they said. It did make it's way into Robert Cohen's "Mondo Hollywood" though. Following Vietnam I cut "All Alone/Your Sweet Lovin" on Current Records, "Gotta Find My Roogalator/Low Down Funky Blues" on Penthouse Records and "Reconsider Baby/Low Down Funky Blues" on Penthouse records. Frank Zappa arranged "Reconsider Baby" and "Gotta Find My Roogalator". I wrote each of the songs. Following the lack of success of those 3 records Phil Turetsky, one of a few truly decent persons in the music business, began to lead me away from the Randy Wood era toward new and hopefully better places. Two of the things Phil came up with were, meet the people who were planning the tv show "The Monkies", which I did, I met with them at Columbia pictures. Burt Schiender and Bob Raphelson. They were nice guys, but I didn't believe their show was going to be as hip as they claimed and I bowed out. I was then introduced to Steve Clark, by Phil, and that's where I met and began to work with Curt Boettcher on "Color Him In". From the very beginning Curt and I found it easy to work with each other. I'd play him a song and he'd just start arranging it right then and there. Vocal harmonies, what kind of instruments he wanted to use and a hundred other things. He was a real wizard. I have been fortunate to have worked with a number of real wizards in my time.

When I returned from England in 1965 I made the CHRIS LUCEY album. "SONGS OF PROTEST AND ANTI PROTEST". I then wrote and recorded "VIETNAM/METROPOLITAN MAN" under my own name BOBBY JAMESON for Mira Records. Mira Records owned Surrey Records, who released the CHRIS LUCEY album some months before. "VIETNAM/METROPOLITAN MAN" also made it into the movie "MONDO HOLLYWOOD", in 1966-67, but was not played in LA as a single at anytime that I know of. Following the making oF "VIETNAM" I wrote and recorded 3 more singles on different labels over the next 8 month period. "ALL ALONE/YOUR SWEET LOVIN" on Current Records. "GOTTA FIND MY ROOGALATOR/LOW DOWN FUNKY BLUES" on Penthouse Records. And "RECONSIDER BABY/LOW DOWN FUNKY BLUES on Penthouse Records. "RECONSIDER BABY" was arranged by FRANK ZAPPA, as was "GOTTA FIND MY ROOGALATOR" and I will always consider myself lucky to have worked with FRANK ZAPPA on those 2 records. Both Penthouse records had the same b sides. The 2 Talamo records "I'M SO LONELY/I WANNA LOVE YOU" and "OKEY FANOKEY BABY/MEADOW GREEN" were written and recorded pryor to my going to England, where I recorded "ALL I WANT IS MY BABY/EACH AND EVERYDAY with MICK JAGGER and ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM for Decca Records and "RUM PUM MUM NUM/I WANNA KNOW on Brit Records, the forerunner of Island Records. "COLOR HIM IN" was recorded in 1966 with CURT BOETTCHER and was released on Verve Records in 1967. Curt and I met at the offices of OUR PRODUCTIONS, which had just had a hit called "ALONG COMES MARY". I had been offered a lead in the a new tv show "THE MONKIES" but decided to do an album with CURT BOETTCHER and STEVE CLARK in stead. I didn't want to do anymore bubblegum music and Curt told me I would have the freedom to work on my own stuff, which wouldn't have been possible with "THE MONKIES". I have been told I made the wrong decision many times, but I am still convinced I made the right one. It was David Jones and myself who were the first two "MONKIES" and I am glad I was even offered the chance. CURT BOETTCHER and I went through the songs I had written and decided on the final selections for the album "COLOR HIM IN". The record was picked up by VERVE RECORDS, thanks to FRANK ZAPPA'S input to TOM WILSON, who produced "THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION" along with FRANK ZAPPA for VERVE RECORDS. Let me go back to the real beginning of my story, which only got off the ground because of someone named TONY ALAMO. Tony and I met in Hollywood in 1964. I was 19 years old and played guitar and wrote songs. For some reason, that is still a mystery to me to this day, Tony just started promoting me in Billboard and Cashbox magazine without ever telling me he was going to do it. He just showed up one day in a coffee shop in Hollywood with a copy of both publications and I was in them. We had no contract, no agreement of any kind and no record. But there I was, world wide in both mags. I don't know what I can say to describe how weird it was to be nobody and then have that happen. The ads were black and white quarter page ads that said BOBBY JAMESON, "The World's Next Phenomenon". I was literally speechless if you want to know the truth. The ads continued to run for 9 weeks doubling in size with each new edition. Half page, three quarter page, full page and so on. By the 8th week the ad ran in Billboard only and was a 4 page, full color fold out of a limo with me standing on top of it, while surrounded by numerous uniformed motorcycle security officers. The picture was taken at Griffith Park Observatory in 1964 by Peter Caine. The 9th and final ad was a black and white full page of my face, which up till then had not been seen. It said BOBBY JAMESON says "I'M SO LONELY/I WANNA LOVE YOU", the title of my record, which I cut while the ads were running.