The Pretenders aka The Savoys aka The Jones Boys (New York)
Personnel:
Jimmy Jones Lead)
William Walker(Tenor)
Bobby Moore(Tenor)
Melvin Walton(Baritone)
Kerry Saxton(Bass
Biography:
Jimmy Jones, who had spent a long apprenticeship singing in R&B vocal harmony groups, became a rock 'n' roll star in the early 1960s singing "Handy Man" and other hits with a dramatic and piercingly high falsetto. When Jimmy was around twelve years old, he moved from his native Birmingham, Alabama, to New York City.
At that time, he was already an accomplished tap dancer, but singing was equally important to him. Role models were Louis Jordan and the Ink Spots and later especially Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson. Early in 1955 he joined a vocal group, the Sparks of Rhythm (originally the Berliners), who landed a recording contract with Apollo Records in July 1955.
Four songs were recorded at their first session, three of them led by Jimmy. When the two resulting singles went nowhere, Jones left the Sparks of Rhythm to form his own group, the Savoys, soon renamed the Pretenders. Their first session was for Herman Lubinsky's Savoy label (for which they were named), on February 2, 1956 and yielded the single "Say You're Mine"/"You" (Savoy 1188).
By coincidence, this was one day after the Sparks Of Rhythm, now without Jimmy, recorded four - then unissued - songs for Apollo, among them Jones's composition "Handy Man" (with bass Andrew Barksdale on lead). In 1957, the Pretenders hooked up with Arrow Records and for some reason, though, there were no records by the "Pretenders"; they were called the "Jones Boys."
Their first task at Arrow was doing the backup on "Was It Just For Fun"/"Eight O'Clock Date" by "Barbara Gorman and Sister Viv. The Jones Boys themselves recorded "The Whistlin' Man" and "Heaven In Your Eyes," which were released in September 1957. "Whistlin' Man".
Jimmy led the Pretenders on a series of doowop sides for a number of New York based labels: Savoy, Rama, Whirlin' Disc, Arrow, Holiday, Central and Apt, but nothing came close to denting the charts. In 1959 he was getting tired of groups ("too much responsibility") and decided to go it alone.
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