J.J. BARNES

Unless you're into the British Northern Soul scene, chances are you've never heard of Detroit soul man J.J. Barnes. But his lack of commercial success had nothing to do with the quality of his music.

James Jay Barnes was born in Detroit on November 30, 1943. Like a lot of soul singers, he got his start in church choirs. In high school, Barnes formed his own group, the Halo Gospel Singers, which included his sister Ortheia. He also sang doo-wop with the Five Seniors of North Western High School in Detroit. They often harmonized on street corners and caught the ear of Fred Brown, a postman who co-owned a record label with Joe Miller. Brown was especially taken with Barnes and brought him into the studio. With Don Davis producing, Barnes recorded his own composition, “My Love Came Tumbling Down,” with the Del-Phis on back-up vocals. (It is unknown what became of the remaining Five Seniors.) The single came out on Brown and Miller’s Kable Records in 1960 and made some noise locally.

Barnes took a job at Chrysler Motors and released five additional singles on Kable’s subsidiary, Mickay Records, through 1964. Barnes often co-wrote the songs himself and received a co-production credit. Scepter Records in New York City picked up one of his singles, “Just One More Time,” for national distribution.

Barnes then recorded “Poor Unfortunate Me” for the Ring label. Since Fred Brown and Joe Miller were credited as co-producers, Ring was likely another Kable subsidiary. In any case, by 1965 Kable was out of business and Barnes kept working full-time at Chrysler Motors. He also continued to perform locally and, before long, was back in the studio. Barnes again worked with Don Davis, this time at the growing Detroit independent, Ric-Tic Records. His second release on the label, “Real Humdinger,” took off nationally, reaching #18 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart in 1966.

A few months later, Barnes joined his fellow Detroiters, Edwin Starr and Steve Mancha, for a one-off single as the Holidays. They recorded Starr’s composition, “I’ll Love You Forever,” which came out on the Ric-Tic subsidiary, Golden World. It became a #7 R&B hit.

Meanwhile, Berry Gordy, Jr., of Motown kept an eye on Ric-Tic/Golden World. Motown’s musicians were moonlight there, and the label was getting too big for Gordy’s britches. So he contacted label chief Ed Wingate and offered to buy him out. Wingate accepted, and the entire Ric-Tic/Golden World artist roster was now on Motown. This included J.J. Barnes.

As a Motown act, he wrote some songs, worked in the studio with several producers, and toured with the Motown Revue. Unfortunately for Barnes, his singing voice was very similar to one of Motown’s biggest stars, Marvin Gaye. Factor in that Gaye was married to Berry Gordy’s sister, and J.J. Barnes realized that Motown would never consider him a priority. When he asked to be released from his contract, Motown agreed.

Barnes reunited with Don Davis, who had since launched Solid Hitbound Productions, with its labels Groovesville and Revilot. Davis launched Groovesville with the J.J. Barnes release, “Baby, Please Come Back Home.” It became the singer’s biggest solo hit, going to #9 R&B and #63 pop in 1967.

Barnes charted with only one additional song, “Now That I Got You Back,” before Davis left the company and Barnes switched to Revilot for his further releases. After Revilot shut down, Barnes turned up on the Stax subsidiary, Volt, again working with Don Davis. His output for the label consisted of one single, “Snowflakes,” and one side of the Rare Stamps album. (The other side was by Steve Mancha, who had also worked with Davis.)

With Stax on shaky ground, Barnes went out on his own, forming the Magic Touch label with James Thorpe in 1970. Barnes issued a single on himself, “To an Early Grave,” that went nowhere. After a three-year dry spell, he signed with Perception Records in New York. He recorded the 1973 album Born Again, but it was commercially unsuccessful.

While J.J. Barnes couldn’t buy a hit in his own country, the Northern Soul scene in England went bonkers for the man. Following a late-1973 British tour, Barnes signed with the Contempo label in that country, releasing the singles “Sweet Sherry” and “How Long,” as well as an album, Sara Smile. His recordings and live appearances became more sporadic, though reports suggested he had not lost his touch.

In 1991, Barnes worked with the British producer Ian Levine and released an album, Try It One More Time. He also continued to put singles out as recently as 2018.

Charted singles:

“Real Humdinger” (1966) R&B #18, Pop #80
“I’ll Love You Forever” (The Holidays, 1966) R&B #7, Pop #63
“Baby, Please Come Back Home” (1967) R&B #9, Pop #61
“Now That I Got You Back” (1967) R&B #44