INEZ & CHARLIE FOXX

Inez Rebecca Foxx was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, on September 9, 1942. Her brother Charlie was born on October 23, 1939. Inez sang lead while Charlie sang back-up and played guitar.

At around age five, Inez began singing in her church choir. By age seven, she and her two sisters were members of the Gospel Tide Chorus. Even then, Inez was determined to be a singing star and dreamed of appearing on TV’s “Ed Sullivan Show.”

In 1953, Inez’s mother died of cancer. Three years later, the girl won $50 in a contest singing secular music at a local bar. Inez and her brother Charlie began performing together while they were both students at Dudley High School. In 1960, Charlie moved to New York to make it as a songwriter. Inez joined him, singing at Benny Goodman’s and other nightclubs. The Brunswick label issued two singles on “Inez Johnston,” neither of which did anything.

Legend has it that Inez and Charlie Foxx (with his three-string guitar) approached Henry “Juggy” Murray, the owner of Sue Records, at a Broadway restaurant and played him a nursery-rhyme novelty they had written called “Mockingbird.” Murray liked what he heard and released the song on his Symbol subsidiary.

Inez Foxx offered a different version of events, insisting that DJ Herman Anderson of WMJR had introduced them to Murray. In either case, “Mockingbird,” with its call-and-response vocals, zoomed up the charts in the summer of 1963. It reached #2 on Billboard magazine’s Rhythm & Blues chart and #7 in the pop market. It sold over a million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America. It also spawned remakes by Aretha Franklin, James Taylor & Carly Simon, Dusty Springfield, Etta James with Taj Mahal, and Toby Keith. The Foxxes themselves even re-recorded the song in 1968.

Since “Mockingbird” was seen as a novelty record, the pair had a hard time following it up. “Hi Diddle Diddle,” “Ask Me,” and “Hurt by Love” all made the R&B charts but failed to set the pop world on fire. In 1966, the Foxxes left Sue for Musicor/Dynamo. At their new label, the duo worked with songwriter/producer Luther Dixon, who had enjoyed previous success with the Shirelles, Chuck Jackson, and Maxine Brown (among other acts). He and Inez co-wrote “I Love You 1000 Times,” a 1966 hit for the Platters. Foxx and Dixon would end up marrying, but it didn’t last as their careers got in the way.

Meanwhile, Charlie produced other Musicor acts, most notably Gene Pitney’s 1968 hit, “She’s a Heartbreaker.” The siblings also became popular in England, where they toured with the Beatles, made friends with the Rolling Stones, and were accompanied by the Spencer Davis Group.

By the early ‘70s, Charlie was working as a songwriter and record producer while Inez was recording solo for Stax/Volt. Two of her singles made the lower half of the Soul chart before she called it quits in 1974.

As big a hit as “Mockingbird” was, the Foxxes did not see much money from it. As writer Bill Carpenter noted, “[Juggy] Murray displayed a keen ability to find a hit record. Also, he seemed to have extreme difficulty with paying the artists royalties.” This led to a lawsuit by the Foxxes and other Sue artists, such as King Curtis, Ike & Tina Turner, and Baby Washington. Juggy Murray would end up selling his label to United Artists.

Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo sang “Mockingbird” in the 1983 hit film, National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Charlie Foxx, 58, died of leukemia on September 18, 1998. Inez Foxx, 79, died on August 25, 2022.

Charted singles:

“Mockingbird” (1963) R&B #2, Pop #7
“Hi Diddle Diddle” (1963) R&B #34, Pop #98
“Ask Me” (1964) R&B #28, Pop #91
“Hurt by Love” (1964) R&B #12, Pop #54
“No Stranger to Love” (1966) R&B #49
“I Stand Accused” (1967) R&B #41, Pop #127
“You Are the Man” (1967) R&B #32
“(1-2-3-4-5-6-7) Count the Days” (1967-68) R&B #17, Pop #76

Inez Foxx solo:

“You Shouldn’t Have Set My Soul on Fire” (1971) R&B #50
“I Had a Talk With My Man (1973-74) R&B #74
“Circuits Overloaded” (1974) R&B #83