Gorgeous Side of Aching Soul from Jennell Hawkins

• Listen to this song on youtube: Moments
• Listen to these 45s in a Spotify playlist here  with other 45s from the blog (though note, spotify doesn’t have all / many of the songs featured on the site so some playlists may be incomplete or feature slightly different versions than the original 45s I’m referring to here.
• This song is available on Musical Episode #013: Singles Mixer v. 4

Today’s record is just one of the many I picked up on a trip out west and while not a particularly rare (or expensive) record it has managed to float to the top of the pile and stayed in my head more of less non-stop since I’ve returned to my dear home state of Massachusetts.

Jennell Hawkins came from Los Angeles and was class mates at Jefferson High School with game-changer Richard Berry who we all know and praise for writing such records as Louie Louie, Have Love Will Travel and a whole host of other ones (most interestingly as an uncredited voice for the Coasters ‘Riot in Cell Block #9 and Etta James’ ”Roll With Me, Henry” her answer song to Hank Ballard’s “Work with Me Annie”).

It was Berry who encouraged Hawkins, who’s main interest was in playing the church organ and chorale music, to record, first as a member of The Dreamers in the mid-50’s then later on her own in the early 60’s which is where we get today’s record.  Written by Berry the record was released on the Titanic label and gained quite a bit of local attention and evidently also caused a bit of confusion with the 4 Lads track from the mid-50’s which was a frequently covered record.  The result would be the subsequent versions released on Amazon would be shortened to just “Moments” (though based on a lil’ googlin’ it appears not all were shortened…).

The popularity of the song led to Hawkins releasing two LPs; one in a more straight R&B vein and another, which is where we draw our single from today, leans heavier on jazz arrangements.

Jennell released a few more singles into the mid-60’s before moving back into gospel music.

I hope you get this song stuck in your head the way I have because there’s nothing nicer than having Jennell Hawkins singing to you all day long, Richard Berry knew it in 1954 and now you can confirm it here in our new year of 2013.

-George / Snack Attack

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