Artist:Charlie & Inez Foxx
Song:Mockingbird
Album:Best of the Sue Years
The 1963 top ten hit Mockingbird was the only big hit for the brother sister duo of Charlie & Inez Foxx. Some of their other songs charted so it is not technically a one hit wonder. But most listeners will only remember this song. And they may be more familiar with the 1974 cover of Mockingbird by Carly Simon & James Taylor. Charlie & Inez Foxx were from Greensboro, NC. Charlie was born in 1933. Inez was born in 1937. They grew up singing in church. Inez moved to New York City in 1960 and recorded for Brunswick Records under her married name Inez Johnston. Charlie came to New York in 1963 and they auditioned for Sue Records owner Henry "Juggy" Murray. He already had success with Ike & Tina Turner and Barbara George. They sang an arrangement of the traditional lullaby Hush, Little Baby and retitled it Mockingbird. The record was released in 1963 and reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B Singles chart. Charlie wrote the arrangement with veteran arranger Bert Keyes. As I said, Carly Simon & James Taylor's cover of Mockingbird was a top five hit in 1974. Apparently Taylor saw Charlie & Inez at the Apollo in New York and he used to sing Mockingbird with his sister Kate when they were teens. BTW, no royalties for Charlie Foxx as Mockingbird is public domain. Subsequent Charlie & Inez Foxx records were unsuccessful and they moved to Musicor's Dynamo label in 1966. They didn't have much success there and left in 1968. They did re-record Mockingbird for Musicor and most of the comps have the Musicor version. This comp which is only available as a digital download is the original version of Mockingbird as Juggy Murray sold the Sue catalog to United Artists in 1968 meaning that the original recording of Mockingbird is owned by EMI Capitol. What's out there mostly even on various artists comps is the Musicor version. Inez married producer Luther Dixon and he produced some of their Dynamo recordings. Inex recorded for Stax's Volt label in the 70s. Then they went out of business. Charlie became a songwriter and producer on 70s Gene Pitney recordings. He died from leukemia in 1998. Inez died in 2022 at age 84. Here's the video for Mockingbird by Charlie & Inez Foxx.
Thank-you Frank. I am very familiar with the version with Carly Simon and James Taylor. But it is good to hear the original version and know a little bit about the artists who did the first version. David.
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