The “Golden Hits Of The 50s”
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JOHNNIE & JOE
“OVER THE MOUNTAIN ACROSS THE SEA”
(Rex Garvin)
Chess 1654
No. 8 July 22, 1957
No. 89 September 26, 1960
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Zelma “Zell” Sanders was always itchin’ to be an entertainer. It never happened, but Sanders did
become something of a momentary cult legend as the owner of the tiny J & S label and as a mentor to
numerous aspiring talents.
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“She’d written a couple of songs when she was a child, and she answered a couple of those ads in the
papers saying “send us your song and we’ll get it published,” Johnnie Louise Richardson, Zell’s
daughter and half of Johnnie & Joe, told Goldmine’s Aaron Fuchs. “That was it. She was dedicated.
And she liked kids, too . [Later, when] she was working for the Police Athletic League in Harlem in
the 23rd Precinct, she saw the talent, and it was just there on the street. ‘Do you sing?’ she’d ask them.
‘Come on up to my house.’ They all got to know her around as the lady that goes around grabbing groups”.
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One of those groups was the Hearts, which consisted of Hazel Cruchfield, Louise Harris, Joyce Weiss,
and, at various times, BETTY HARRIS and BABY WASHINGTON. In 1953, Sanders placed the girls
with Baton Records. Disappointed with both the productions and the royalty statements issued by
the label, Zell formed her own label, J & S, the following year. She then issued singles by Niecy Dizelle
and the Machines [WHO? Gotta hear that.], the Gospel Wonders, the Harptones, THE JAYNElTES, the
Plants, and the Pre-Teens.
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“Rex [Garvin, a pianist/songwriter who lived next door] brought Joe Rivers (b. Charleston, S.C.) up
one night, and said ‘Hey, Miss Sanders, this is Joe Rivers and we’ve been rehearsing some things,'”
Richardson told Fuchs. “‘We want you to listen because we want to do a thing together called ‘Over
the Mountain.’ So, she listened and listened, and said ‘I think it needs a little something … I tell you
what, Johnnie, you get over there, and you sing with them.’ I said, ‘Oh no, do I have to?’ So she gave me
that look that distinguishes between mother and record manufacturer. So I knew I better get over
there and join them.
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“At first they didn’t want to do it with me. But when we got into the studio, and we all listened, I guess
it all dawned on us, ‘Hey maybe we got something here.”‘ Issued on J & S, the disk almost immediately
started to take off. Chess Records had picked up national distribution on Johnnie & Joe’s debut disk,
“I’ll Be Spinning” (R&B:#10, 1957), and did the same for the duos only mammoth mover. In addition to
some fine follow-ups shipped by J & S and Chess, and a recharting of “Over The Mountain’ (#89, 1960),
numerous other Johnnie & Joe 45s appeared on ABC-Paramount, Blue Rock, Gone, Masterpiece,
Omega, and Tuff; most notably, the immediate follow-up to “Over The Mountain;”‘My Baby’s Gone On,
On” (R&B:#15, 1957). Personal appearances were rare, and tensions developed between the duo.
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Johnnie formed Dice, her own short-lived label, and recorded the Avalons, the Clickettes, and the
Premiers [not to be confused with the L.A. group THE PREMIERS]. In the ’60s, she turned away from
the biz to marry and to raise a family. Ambient Sound resurrected the act in 1983. Kingdom o f Love,
their first and only LP, was issued, as was a single, the album’s title track. Neither generated more
than a cultish stir.
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Johnnie Louise Richardson died from a stroke on October 25, 1988.