Jewel Akens--The Birds and the Bees (1965)

     In 1964, Jewell Akens was the lead singer of a group called The Turnarounds and had just been signed by Era Records out of Hollywood. That year produced one single that saw no chart action. The owner of the label, Herb Newman, brought a song to them by a young songwriter by the name of Barry Stewart. (it was the pseudonym of Newman's teenaged son).

     Looking over the song, it was very sing-songy....almost like a nursery rhyme. Akens really liked the song, however the rest of the group did not. Long story short, the group split up over the song and Jewell decided to record it himself. He went through several arraignments before settling on the one that was finally released. It shot up to #3 on the charts in the spring of 1965 and became popular in different versions all over the world.

      It was to be the only big hit of Akens career. A follow up song, "Georgie Porgie" saw some chart action, but never saw the charts again. He has continued recording and have been told there are some really good singles from the early 70's that I need to check out. He released a gospel album not too long ago, but am lacking info about it.