Who was/is Kay Cee Jones ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Kay Cee Jones
KAY-CEE JONES was born Ruthie Reece in Childress, Texas in 1929. She worked as a nightclub singer throughout the mid-west and probably took her stage name from Kansas City (though we can't rule out Casey Jones, the doomed Irish train driver immortalized in C&W songs!). During the early 50s she led her own trio and appeared on WOC-TV in Davenport, Iowa where she met and married songwriter Eddie Brandt who was composing material for Spike Jones' Orchestra. Brandt convinced her to move to Hollywood where she was spotted by Spade Cooley and signed up to 18 months on his televised variety show. The MARQUEE label, a subsidiary of AMERICAN RECORDING ARTISTS INC., put out Jones' first discs including The Japanese Farewell Song, a moderate pop hit in 1955. She switched to rock 'n' roll the following year, cutting Shortnin' Bread Rock for AMERICAN; the tune was co-written by her husband and featured Ernie Freeman's band. Six singles then emerged on DECCA; the company's promo department plugged her ability to sing "...everything from Horse Opera to Grand Opera."
There was something of a fracas over the song Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie. Written by George Motola and his wife, Ricky Page, it was originally pitched to Eddie Cochran whose gruff-voiced classic, recorded in early January 1958, scraped into the Hot 100 for one week. Jimmy Maddin's inferior version, recorded for IMPERIAL on January 30, shared the same inconsequential fate as Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Kay-Cee Jones' bat-squeaking female equivalent. There were no more of Jones' records on DOT and the last known sighting was on CHANCELLOR, a Philadelphia label, in 1958.
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