Jacki Bond

Jacki Bond was a secretary working for Strike records in the mid 1960s who, though without previous musical experience, had a short recording career in 1965-7. She came from Golders Green, North London and, with Samantha Juste, who co-hosted BBC television's "Top of the Pops", was one of two British female vocalists signed to Strike or (in Juste's case) its subsidiary, Go.

Recording career

Bond's first single record, "My Sister's Boy", was released in 1965 by Columbia records [Columbia Db7719. "My Sister's Boy" was released in America by Roulette Records, 4643.] , an EMI subsidiary, under license from Millwick Music, the publishing company from which Strike emerged. Her second, "Tell Him to Go Away", which was coupled with "Don't You Worry ('bout Me)" (a song written by the head of Strike, Lionel Segal, and arranged by Alan Caddy, former lead guitarist of the Tornados [This was not the same song as "Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'Bout Me)", recorded in 1966 by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.] ), appeared in March 1966 [Strike Records, JH 302] . It was only the second record to be released by Strike, but, although the first, Neil Christian's "That's Nice", had been widely promoted by Radio London and other "pirate" stations and reached number 14 in the British sales charts ["Guinness Book of British Hit Singles" (15th ed)] , Bond did not enjoy similar success. In fact, "That's Nice" proved to be Strike's only chart success.

Bond's third and final single, the highly infectious "He Say", released by Strike in November 1966 [Strike Records, JH 320] and coupled with "Why Can't I Love Him", was written by Pierre Tubbs and Bond herself and recorded with an orchestra conducted by Ken Woodman. It has been described as "an irresistibly uptempo slab of New York-style girl-pop" [Keiron Tyler, March 2001 (sleeve notes for CD, "The Best of Strike Records")] , but, though popular on the Northern soul circuit ["Ibid."] , Strike lacked the promotional machinery to help make it a commercial success. (Even Samantha Juste's "No One Needs My Love Today", issued in the same month, which she performed on "Top of the Pops", made little impact.)

Demise of Strike records

In 1967 Bond recorded Lionel Bart's "Reviewing the Situation" from the musical "Oliver!", but Strike folded before it could be released; the company's final single, Our Plastic Dream's vaguely psychedelic "A Little Bit of Shangrila", was released by Go in August 1967 [Go Records, AJ 11411] as the "Summer of Love" was reaching its climax. "Reviewing the Situation" was released 36 years later on a compilation album [CD, "Dream Babes, Volume 4" (RPM, 2003)] .

=A note on

According to Pierre Tubbs, Bond was short, with long hair [Sleeve notes for CD, "The Best of Strike Records", 2001] . Photographs of her during her brief recording career, if they exist, are elusive. None has appeared with re-releases of Strike recordings.

Notes

Discography

Recordings by Jacki Bond