Biography
Born September 12, 1940, in Houston, Texas, doo wop veteran Jewel Akens sang in church during childhood while also absorbing sounds from a neighborhood blues establishment. His family relocated to Los Angeles in the late 1940s. During his teenage years Akens performed with the Four Dots. After an introduction to Eddie Cochran’s manager Jerry Capehart, the group cut a single for Freedom Records in 1959. Akens and his associate Eddie Daniels subsequently issued material under the name Akens and Daniels on Capehart’s Silver and Capehart imprints, with Eddie Cochran supplying guitar on those tracks as well as on Akens’s own Crest sides. Akens contributed background vocals to John Ashley’s recordings “Hot Rod Gang,” “High School Caesar,” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The Four Dots also placed singles with Liberty (“Don’t Wake Up the Kids,” “Peace of Mind”), Bullseye, and Dot Records (“My Dear”). In 1961 Akens and Daniels, billing themselves as the Astro-Jets, released the Imperial single “Boom a Lay” b/w “Hide & Seek.”
Akens next began sessions for Herb Newman’s Era Records alongside the Turnarounds. Newman’s teenage son had composed a nursery-rhyme-styled number about birds and bees, and the label head assigned the song to Akens. Following refinement, “The Birds and the Bees” b/w “Tic Tac Toe” appeared and reached number three on Billboard’s pop chart in early 1965. Another track drawing on nursery-rhyme phrasing, “Georgie Porgie” b/w “Around the Corner (From My House),” climbed to number 68 pop that spring. The Birds and the Bees LP followed the same year. Although Akens continued to record—“It’s the Only Way to Fly” b/w “Sure Know How to Hurt a Fella” on Era, “Blue Eyed Soul Brother” b/w “Why Do You Want to Go” on Paula, plus the Colgems couplings “It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie” b/w “You Better Move On” and a version of Thurston Harris’s “Little Bitty Pretty One” b/w “Born a Loser”—only the earlier two singles charted.
Akens later joined the Monkees on tour and produced the 1973 Paula Records duet album Super Taylors by Ted Taylor and Little Johnny Taylor for Stan Lewis. He maintained live performances through the 1990s.
Akens next began sessions for Herb Newman’s Era Records alongside the Turnarounds. Newman’s teenage son had composed a nursery-rhyme-styled number about birds and bees, and the label head assigned the song to Akens. Following refinement, “The Birds and the Bees” b/w “Tic Tac Toe” appeared and reached number three on Billboard’s pop chart in early 1965. Another track drawing on nursery-rhyme phrasing, “Georgie Porgie” b/w “Around the Corner (From My House),” climbed to number 68 pop that spring. The Birds and the Bees LP followed the same year. Although Akens continued to record—“It’s the Only Way to Fly” b/w “Sure Know How to Hurt a Fella” on Era, “Blue Eyed Soul Brother” b/w “Why Do You Want to Go” on Paula, plus the Colgems couplings “It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie” b/w “You Better Move On” and a version of Thurston Harris’s “Little Bitty Pretty One” b/w “Born a Loser”—only the earlier two singles charted.
Akens later joined the Monkees on tour and produced the 1973 Paula Records duet album Super Taylors by Ted Taylor and Little Johnny Taylor for Stan Lewis. He maintained live performances through the 1990s.
Albums
Singles
