Paul Jones

Emerging as a vocalist during the peak of the British Invasion in the 1960s, Paul Jones built an extended and multifaceted career as one of the most robust and flexible voices in British rock and blues. He first achieved recognition fronting Manfred Mann on their global success “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” then stepped out alone in 1966 with the album My Way. Balancing music and screen work, he took leading parts in Privilege (1967) and The Committee (1968) while issuing Come Into My Music Box (1969) and Crucifix in a Horseshoe (1972); renewed visibility arrived in the 1980s when he became lead singer of the Blues Band on their 1980 release Ready. The 1990s brought a return to 1960s material with the Manfreds on 1999’s 5-4-3-2-1. Solo activity resumed in the 2000s via Starting All Over Again in 2009 and Suddenly I Like It in 2015.

Born Paul Pond on February 24, 1942, in the southern English port of Portsmouth, Jones was still an Oxford student when he first performed vocals and harmonica at West London’s Ealing Jazz Club, sharing bills with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated and a pre-Rolling Stones Brian Jones. Joining the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers in 1962—a unit started by keyboardist Manfred Mann and percussionist Mike Hugg—he helped the ensemble secure a contract with His Master’s Voice, the British arm of RCA. Producer John Burgess urged the simpler billing Manfred Mann. Their initial British success came in 1964 with “5-4-3-2-1,” which climbed to number five on the U.K. charts; later that year “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy” reached number one both at home and in the United States, while “Sha La La” hit number three in Britain and number twelve across the Atlantic. Jones’s gritty, blues-inflected delivery supplied extra force to the band’s fusion of R&B and beat music.

Restless despite Manfred Mann’s achievements, Jones left in July 1966 to focus on solo recordings and acting; Mike d’Abo replaced him. His first solo LP, My Way, yielded the single “High Time,” which reached number four in Britain. Another top-five entry arrived in 1967 with “I’ve Been a Bad, Bad Boy,” cut for Privilege, a satirical film that cast Jones as a pop idol exploited by authorities and marked his debut lead role. Modest box-office returns did not prevent critical praise or later cult status; an EP appeared in the U.K. and a longer version in America. Love Me, Love My Friends followed in 1968, the same year Jones joined the Who and the Small Faces on an Australian and New Zealand tour that frequently clashed with local conservative outlets. He also starred that year in the darkly satirical The Committee, scored by Pink Floyd and Arthur Brown.

The psychedelic-leaning Come Into My Music Box surfaced in 1969 but sold weakly, prompting Jones to concentrate on theater and television. He supplied vocals to Carla Bley and Paul Haines’s 1971 “jazz opera” Escalator Over the Hill and released the prog-styled Crucifix in a Horseshoe on Vertigo. After further stage and small-screen work—including a guest spot on Space: 1999—he sang the role of Juan Peron on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1976 Evita concept album. In 1978 Tim Rice produced a novelty single pairing string-laden versions of the Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant” and the Ramones’ “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker.” The next year Jones and ex-Manfred Mann guitarist Tom McGuinness formed the Blues Band, reviving classic blues and R&B with Jones handling harp and lead vocals. Early label indifference led the group to issue The Official Blues Band Bootleg Album themselves; its 3,000-copy pressing sold out quickly, prompting Arista to reissue it. Between 1980 and 2022 the band released twenty-one albums, ending with the declared farewell So Long. In 1982 former Human League members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh recruited Jones for a cover of R. Dean Taylor’s “There’s a Ghost in My House” on B.E.F.’s Music of Quality and Distinction.

During a break from the Blues Band and acting, Jones assembled a 1991 concert marking Tom McGuinness’s fiftieth birthday. The lineup reunited Jones, McGuinness, Mike Hugg, and Mike Vickers for early Manfred Mann repertoire and performed as the Manfreds, Manfred Mann himself absent. The show’s success turned the project into a regular ensemble; their first of six albums, 5-4-3-2-1, appeared in 1998. Jones maintained his stage career with U.K. revivals of Guys and Dolls, The Beggar’s Opera, and Kiss Me Kate, and from 1986 hosted BBC Radio 2’s The Blues Show for thirty-two years, eventually recording the station’s signature jingle on harmonica.

After thirty-six years without a solo release, Jones returned in 2009 with Starting All Over Again, produced by Carla Olson of the Textones and Gene Clark fame; guests included Eric Clapton, Percy Sledge, and Ernie Watts. Olson also helmed 2015’s Suddenly I Like It, featuring Jools Holland and Joe Bonamassa. Jones’s final Blues Show aired in April 2018, closing with Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Mighty Long Time” before Cerys Matthews assumed hosting duties. Umbrella Records issued the 2022 compilation The Blues, mixing Jones’s solo recordings with selections from Manfred Mann, the Blues Band, and other projects.