JEAN WELLS

Jean Wells placed five singles on the Billboard Soul chart before returning to her gospel roots in the 1970s.

Not only did Jean Wells have hits on the R&B charts in the United States in late ‘60s, but she acquired a cult following throughout Europe. By popular acclaim, she played the Apollo Theater in Harlem...six times. [She also] appeared on numerous TV shows and was constantly on the go, doing personal appearances. Jean was also a double treat in that she wrote some of her own hits.

So said Clyde Otis, who produced Jean Wells during her late-’60s heyday on Calla Records.

She was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, on August 1, 1942. However, Wells grew up about forty miles west of there in Belle Glade, near Lake Okeechobee. She came from a musical family, singing in church choirs during her childhood and teaching herself the piano. Wells decided early on to take a stab at secular music and formed a vocal group in her teens.

After graduating from high school, she struck out for Philadelphia. Wells cut her first record, “Song of the Bells,” for the independent Quaker Town label. It did well enough locally to spawn two further singles, neither of which made any noise. Wells returned to Florida but was back in Philadelphia within a year to work the nightclub scene.

She signed with ABC-Paramount in 1965. Her one single for the company, “Don’t Come Running Back to Me,” sold poorly, prompting the singer’s return to her native Florida. Wells, however, was determined to make it in the music business and had again moved back to Philadelphia by 1966. This time she met Clyde Otis, an A&R (artists and repertoire) man whose client list included Brook Benton, Dinah Washington, Clyde McPhatter, and Sarah Vaughan.

The first two tracks that Otis cut on Wells were the sublimely deep “If You Ever Loved Someone” and the mid-paced “Hello Baby.” Released on the small Eastern label, it sold reasonably well but did not make the national charts. During this time, Wells, unable to find what she regarded as suitable material, began to write her own songs. She and two friends created the uptempo “After Loving You.” Recorded in New York City, it became her first release on the Manhattan-based Calla label, reaching #31 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart in the summer of 1967. Wells further composed the follow-up, “I Feel Good,” which hit #33 R&B a few months later.

It was her third Calla release that soul-music devotees consider Jean Wells’ magnum opus. A pleading ballad with a slow burn, a strong hook and a dramatic climax, “Have a Little Mercy” peaked at #25 R&B in early 1968 and became Wells’ biggest hit. That same year saw the release of her one album for Calla, World, Here Comes Jean Wells.

By 1969, she and Calla had gone their separate ways. Her next label, Volare, put out one single on Wells, the self-penned “Keep Your Mouth Shut (And Your Eyes Open).” Over the next decade, Wells had singles out on Canyon, Law-Ton, AVCO Embassy, TEC Records, and Sunshine Recordings. The latter further released Wells’ second album, Number One, in 1981.

Though her whereabouts of the last forty years are unknown, Clyde Otis told an interviewer in 1994 that Jean Wells had returned to gospel music in the ‘70s (her Sunshine releases notwithstanding).

Charted singles:

“After Loving You” (1967) R&B #31
“I Feel Good” (1967) R&B #33
“Have a Little Mercy” (1967-68) R&B #25
“Try Me and See” (1968) R&B #45
“What Have I Got to Lose” (1968) R&B #49