4) Jaibi: You Got Me (1967)




Like the DC Blossoms, Jaibi left a tiny collection of released recordings, less than half a dozen tracks, of which one has stood out as something special down the years.  Jaibi was actually Joan Pulliam, becoming Joan Banks after her marriage to Larry Banks, who had written the big hit Go Now, originally recorded by his first wife Bessie Banks before the Moody Blues version reached  the top of the UK charts in 1965. She had recorded a few tracks as part of a group called the Pleasures in 1964/5  before taking up solo work with Larry Banks as producer and co-writer.

A couple of double-sided singles emerged, of which You Got Me  from 1967 was the one that has subsequently received most praise. Dave Godin, the blues and soul specialist who championed black American music in Britain, cited it as his all-time favourite record and James McKean of Stylus Magazine was even more fulsome in his praise: “Were it not for a slightly clumsy fade-out I would try to make a case for this being, quite simply, the perfect record… This is AWESOME. I love this song!” I wouldn’t go as far as that but  it is certainly a musical tour-de-force, with a swirling organ and Jaibi’s desperate vocals that seem to be struggling against the swelling horn section as  a metaphor for her anguish.

Like Lorraine Ellison’s take of Stay With Me, it was a performance not equalled on her other tracks that were released. By 1968 her musical career was over. She went on to a successful career in IT but died at the early age of 41 in 1984, a premature end that has enhanced her cult status since then and a reputation largely based on one track.




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