for Sunday 31st July 1966

Presented by Chris Denning

Guitarist Michael Leslie Jones and drummer Thomas Francis Brown went by the name of J & B for the release of just one single, but it was not merely the initials of their surnames. Both were soul fans and admirers of James Brown and intended There She Goes to be a tribute to the Godfather of Soul. The name printed on the Polydor label is The J & B, but it seems more likely that Jones and Brown intended to call themselves simply 'J & B'. That was certainly how they were billed on the Curzon Street list.

Early in the decade, the duo had been in one of many line-ups of Nero and the Gladiators, a band that had enjoyed a couple of minor instrumental hits. It was during their performance at the Paris Olympia that the talents of Mick and Tommy were spotted by French megastar Johnny Hallyday, who recruited them initially for his wife Sylvie Vartan's backing band. They also backed Hallyday himself, as regular members of his session men, Les Blackburds.

When Hallyday decided to record a soul album, Mick landed the enviable job of going to the States to record backing tracks with Otis Redding's band (presumably the MGs), with Hallyday's vocals to be added later. "When Otis heard that Johnny was covering some of his songs, he flew to Paris and sat in on the sessions. That was unbelievable, hilarious! Otis would look at me and say, 'How we gonna help this guy get some soul?'", Mick told Record Collector magazine in 1994.

In France, Mick honed his songwriting skills and contributed to many recordings, including several movie soundtracks. In 1965 he gave Cliff Richard a Fab Forty Top Twenty entry with his song The Time In Between – although it fared less well in the Nationals. Mick and Tommy released other singles (and in France, an EP) as The State of Micky and Tommy (with Micky sometimes spelt 'Mickey'). Les Blackburds released singles of their own, including their instrumental take on The In Crowd. However, as the Sixties became the Seventies, Micky became involved in other ventures and his long-time musical partnership with Tommy ceased. Their catalogue of work is now collected on the 24-track CD The State of Micky and Tommy.

Although very much a part of the music business since the Fifties, Mick Jones's biggest hits came in the late Seventies and Eighties when he founded rockers Foreigner and enjoyed huge international success with hits such as, I Want to Know What Love Is, Waiting for a Girl Like You and Cold As Ice. The band website describes him thus: "The architect behind Foreigner’s extraordinary catalogue of smash hits, Mick has crafted some of rock music’s most enduring songs and produced 10 multi-platinum albums. (He is a) Grammy and Golden Globe-nominated songwriter, performer and producer and winner of the prestigious Ivor Novello songwriter award in Britain in 1998."

In mint condition, There She Goes can command a price of £50 or more, while the two singles released under the banner of The State of Micky and Tommy are even more highly valued.