Gloria Jones with the Oscar for the 2013 film "Twenty Feet From Stardom"
Here is a link to an article on Film Maker Magazine.com discussing the Film with the director Morgan Neville:
http://filmmakermagazine.com/72491-morgan-neville-on-twenty-feet-from-stardom/#.VZCAVkbcjSh
Here is a link to an article on Film Maker Magazine.com discussing the Film with the director Morgan Neville:
http://filmmakermagazine.com/72491-morgan-neville-on-twenty-feet-from-stardom/#.VZCAVkbcjSh
GloJo – the first Woman Record Producer at Motown
Gloria’s stock rose to a new high in 1971when she co - wrote IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN with Pam Sawyer who came from Romford in Essex. The cut of this song recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips and Produced by Clay McMurray went to # 5 in the CashBox Top 20 – which was the top chart U.S Music Industry Trade Magazine at the time and was also nominated for a Grammy in 1971
But there were so many Arrangement / Productions ideas from the Demo used in producing that HIT Record – Mr Berry Gordy decided to give Gloria and Pam a shot at Producing! Gloria and Pam proceeded to become the first in – house Female Producers within the Tamla Motown stable and produced other Artists Motown Artists such as
* Eddie Kendrick's “Let's Go Back To Day One"
* The Supremes' "Have I Lost You",
* Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross' "My Mistake was to love you",
* Junior Walker's "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and the
* Four Tops' "Just Seven Numbers" and
* Gladys Knight and the Pips "If I Were Your Woman","
* Also “It’s Bad For Me To See You – which was recorded by Yvonne Fair,
Also “Christmas Won't Be The Same This Year", “My Mistake Was To Love You”, “Just Seven Numbers” and “Have I Lost You” were all successful records.
Gloria recalls: For Michael (Jackson) we wrote “One day I’ll marry you” – the institution of marriage and love from a child’s point of view. Another time we listened to him playing outside and shouting nursery rhymes – so Pamela and I sat down and wrote “Two Four Six Eight”. Other songs we wrote for The Jackson Five include “Christmas Won't Be The Same This Year”, “One Day I'll Marry You” but these were all produced by Hal Davis – who was at that time Producer of the Jackson Five for Tamla Motown.
A lot of these songs are big favourites in the World of Northern Soul, but IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN was covered many times. In fact it was so good it was later covered by an Artiste of the stature of Alicia Keyes in the 90s.
GloJo – the Musical Theatre Actress
GloJo got her ‘first break’ into British Theatre in 1969 when Legendary British Director Jack Good – of “Cool for Cats” fame cast her in his groundbreaking Production of “Catch my Soul”.
GloJo then got her break into American Theatre thanks to another Legendary Director Michael Butler when he cast her as Jeannie in the groundbreaking Age of Aquarius Musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical and she went on a tour of the USA with that particular Company of actors.
Unsung Heroines – Backing Singers
Right the way through all of this GloJo provided ‘stellar’ backing vocals for a whole plethora of hit records. This story is best told in the Documentary “20 Feet From Stardom” for which GloJo won an Oscar in 2014 where Morgan Neville “wanted the documentary to be about these African-American voices that came into popular music and changed something”.
What follows is an Interview published in Filmmaker Magazine with Morgan Neville Director of the Documentary “20 Feet From Stardom” | Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 20:28:36 +0100 Neville:There are so many stories. Probably the hardest for me, and I didn’t fully flesh out the story because I knew it was too big, it was almost it’s own film, is the story of Gloria Jones.
Gloria is in our film a few times. She’s wearing a white suit and has a hat and a sort of gravelly voice. Gloria sang the original “Tainted Love”, she moved to London in the late 60s while touring with Joe Cocker, she fell in love with Marc Bolan, legendary frontman of the Band T.Rex. She had Marc Bolan’s son and they called him Rolan Bolan – like Zowie Bowie. She was driving the car when it crashed and he was killed and in that accident she damaged her vocal chords.
She left the music business and now runs the Marc Bolan School of Music in Sierra Leone, Africa. Filmmaker: Wow. ( see GloJo the Humanitarian )
Neville: So that story alone is incredible, but Gloria and Merry were really great, but I felt like you couldn’t tell both their stories in the same film and Gloria’s story was so big and so different that it really deserves its own film. Things like that are so painful but, you know, amazing too.
Footnote: Twenty Feet From Stardom – won an Oscar for BEST DOCUMENTARY at the 2014 Academy Awards in Hollywood
http://filmmakermagazine.com/72491-morgan-neville-on-twenty-feet-from-stardom/#.Ut7Jqfu1KXY
Gloria’s stock rose to a new high in 1971when she co - wrote IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN with Pam Sawyer who came from Romford in Essex. The cut of this song recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips and Produced by Clay McMurray went to # 5 in the CashBox Top 20 – which was the top chart U.S Music Industry Trade Magazine at the time and was also nominated for a Grammy in 1971
But there were so many Arrangement / Productions ideas from the Demo used in producing that HIT Record – Mr Berry Gordy decided to give Gloria and Pam a shot at Producing! Gloria and Pam proceeded to become the first in – house Female Producers within the Tamla Motown stable and produced other Artists Motown Artists such as
* Eddie Kendrick's “Let's Go Back To Day One"
* The Supremes' "Have I Lost You",
* Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross' "My Mistake was to love you",
* Junior Walker's "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and the
* Four Tops' "Just Seven Numbers" and
* Gladys Knight and the Pips "If I Were Your Woman","
* Also “It’s Bad For Me To See You – which was recorded by Yvonne Fair,
Also “Christmas Won't Be The Same This Year", “My Mistake Was To Love You”, “Just Seven Numbers” and “Have I Lost You” were all successful records.
Gloria recalls: For Michael (Jackson) we wrote “One day I’ll marry you” – the institution of marriage and love from a child’s point of view. Another time we listened to him playing outside and shouting nursery rhymes – so Pamela and I sat down and wrote “Two Four Six Eight”. Other songs we wrote for The Jackson Five include “Christmas Won't Be The Same This Year”, “One Day I'll Marry You” but these were all produced by Hal Davis – who was at that time Producer of the Jackson Five for Tamla Motown.
A lot of these songs are big favourites in the World of Northern Soul, but IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN was covered many times. In fact it was so good it was later covered by an Artiste of the stature of Alicia Keyes in the 90s.
GloJo – the Musical Theatre Actress
GloJo got her ‘first break’ into British Theatre in 1969 when Legendary British Director Jack Good – of “Cool for Cats” fame cast her in his groundbreaking Production of “Catch my Soul”.
GloJo then got her break into American Theatre thanks to another Legendary Director Michael Butler when he cast her as Jeannie in the groundbreaking Age of Aquarius Musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical and she went on a tour of the USA with that particular Company of actors.
Unsung Heroines – Backing Singers
Right the way through all of this GloJo provided ‘stellar’ backing vocals for a whole plethora of hit records. This story is best told in the Documentary “20 Feet From Stardom” for which GloJo won an Oscar in 2014 where Morgan Neville “wanted the documentary to be about these African-American voices that came into popular music and changed something”.
What follows is an Interview published in Filmmaker Magazine with Morgan Neville Director of the Documentary “20 Feet From Stardom” | Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 20:28:36 +0100 Neville:There are so many stories. Probably the hardest for me, and I didn’t fully flesh out the story because I knew it was too big, it was almost it’s own film, is the story of Gloria Jones.
Gloria is in our film a few times. She’s wearing a white suit and has a hat and a sort of gravelly voice. Gloria sang the original “Tainted Love”, she moved to London in the late 60s while touring with Joe Cocker, she fell in love with Marc Bolan, legendary frontman of the Band T.Rex. She had Marc Bolan’s son and they called him Rolan Bolan – like Zowie Bowie. She was driving the car when it crashed and he was killed and in that accident she damaged her vocal chords.
She left the music business and now runs the Marc Bolan School of Music in Sierra Leone, Africa. Filmmaker: Wow. ( see GloJo the Humanitarian )
Neville: So that story alone is incredible, but Gloria and Merry were really great, but I felt like you couldn’t tell both their stories in the same film and Gloria’s story was so big and so different that it really deserves its own film. Things like that are so painful but, you know, amazing too.
Footnote: Twenty Feet From Stardom – won an Oscar for BEST DOCUMENTARY at the 2014 Academy Awards in Hollywood
http://filmmakermagazine.com/72491-morgan-neville-on-twenty-feet-from-stardom/#.Ut7Jqfu1KXY