Album Reviews

Let’s be honest — the 1960s changed a lot in the world of music. And if you are a Gen X’er like me, then you grew up in an era that bridged a gap between the clean-cut, sharp-suited big bands of the ’40s and ’50s and the big-hair bell-bottomed groovers that blossomed in the ’60s and ’70s. We learned to walk as we had our feet squarely planted in a piece of music history, and some of the albums that survive from our childhood expertly capture the changes as they happened in real time.

So, what does it mean when a little-known album that hasn’t been reissued in 55 years becomes available again? Sure, it gives us a sneak peek into the past, but it also presents a bit of a dilemma. Without knowing much about the artist, the listener must rely on the music itself to tell the balance of the story.

Since the Internet wasn’t around in 1969 when Janice Wesson Tyrone, a 17-year-old songwriter and guitarist from Kingsville, Texas, released her one and only album as Little Janice on Pzazz Records, Today’s Youth – Tomorrow the World (Pzazz LP 323), there are a lot of details that got lost in the shuffle. Between 1967 and 1969, we do know, at least, that she and bandleader/producer Paul Gayten released four gospel/blues-flavored singles, including “Scarred Knees” b/w “I Won’t Be Back” (initially billed as “Little Miss Janice” on Proverb PR-45-1030, before the ”Miss” distinction was dropped on subsequent pressings), “Not Til Him” b/w “Mirror Mind” (Pzazz 024), “Texas Woman” b/w “Good Bye, Baby” (Pzazz 031), and “I Am a Soul” b/w “Since You’ve Been Gone” (Pzazz 034). But not long after Little Janice’s full Today’s Youth – Tomorrow the World album was released in 1969, she essentially became a virtual ghost.

This was the case until Inner Groove Records picked up the mantle for a mid-2024 limited-edition release (333 numbered copies) of Today’s Youth – Tomorrow the World (IGR-002) to help bring Little Janice’s music back to life, and it is that version that will now be reviewed here.

After doing some earnest searching online along with some direct discussion with Inner Groove’s fearless leader and founder, Dave Frankel, I was able to piece together a little bit about Little Janice’s life and backstory. I also found a handful of some surprisingly expensive copies of the original 1969 Pzazz LP release on Discogs and eBay. In all fairness, most of those copies are listed as being in M, NM, or still-sealed condition, and they run between $500 to $1,000. It made me think that getting a hold of OG Today’s Youth vinyl would be just as difficult as finding out more about Little Janice herself.

Taking to YouTube, I tried to find more references to some of her earlier material, but it seemed as if Little Janice’s music is just as obscure in that realm as the girl is herself, as I could locate only a few rather scratchy vinyl recordings of hers uploaded there. That said, I was pleasantly surprised at the rich bluesy sound from the “Scarred Knees” single, contrasting with Today’s Youth and its more Motown-sounding tracks. (More on the latter, later).

Fast-forward from that 1969 material to June 26, 2024, when Today’s Youth – Tomorrow the World first became available. Inner Groove Records, based in Collingswood, New Jersey, revels in their new-found specialty of releasing rare and hard-to-find albums. As you may recall from AP editor Mike Mettler’s report from October 12, 2023, the label’s first reissue was Lim Taylor’s lost 1974 funk/soul gem, You Hear Me Knocking (IGR-001), and you can read all about it here.

Some basic stats now before we delve into where the source material originated. The new Today’s Youth LPs were pressed at New Press in Opa Locka, Florida (formerly known as SunPress, the same locale where the Lim Taylor reissue LP was pressed). The SRP for the new 180g 1LP edition of Little Janice’s Today’s Youth – Tomorrow the World is $29.99 plus $4.99 for shipping, and it can be ordered directly from Inner Groove Records right here.

To be fair, I love that the new Inner Grooves LP’s cover is the same as the OG (as seen a little bit earlier in this review). The ever-so-slightly out of focus photo taken by Austin Black portrays Janice holding a guitar, sitting on top of the world. Her stylish bell-bottom striped pants and white go-go boots scream “teenager in the ’60s” to me. Frankel has a different feeling about the reproduction of the cover, as he told me directly via email.

“The cover. The bane of my existence,” Frankel admitted. “Let me explain. When you’re trying to reissue lost music, sometimes you get lucky. With our Lim Taylor record, we were able to scan an original cover and re-do the back title, as the original was pretty unfocused. Came out great! With Janice, we attempted the same procedure, expecting similar results. There are no images available for anything we’ve released, so we are left to scan and clean up the best original [LP cover] we can find. It isn’t great. Sadly, the printed image is pretty blurry, despite our best efforts. I’ve lost sleep over this, but I’ve come to accept it. You don’t listen to the cover, after all.”

Continued Frankel, “I owe a huge debt of gratitude to TONE Scott, who [wrote] the amazing liner notes that we decided to do at additional cost in a custom inner sleeve at the last minute, as I was so unhappy about the scan. I will never alter an original cover except to add a small box of text about the reissue on the back [as shown below]. I want people to go back to the time of the release in the late ’60s or ’70s, and have their experience be as authentic as possible.”

There is so little information about Little Janice’s recordings and the Pzazz Records label that I turned to both Frankel and Scott’s awesome new liner notes for some further insight. In an email conversation with Dave, I tried to find out the source of this recording, and he was able to shed some light on the story, via the following email exchange.

McKellar: There’s so little info about Little Janice out there. Knowing how much Inner Groove enjoys unearthing the rare stuff, how did this one come onto your radar?
Frankel: As an admirer and collector of many “lost” recordings — which, as you know, is the sole focus of my label — I have the original album, and it’s always been among my favorites to play, even as the most jaded collector who’s “heard it all!” Very few people are aware of her one-and-only album, and it’s got a tough Texas soul vibe. After our initial [2023] release of the lost funk/soul banger from Lim Taylor, You Hear Me Knocking, I knew I wanted to do Little Janice’s album next. It was quite a chase to find out anything about her since, as you also know, there is almost no information about Janice.

McKellar: I’m curious about the source for your remaster, as it sounds amazing! You really captured that late ’60s sound. Do you know much about the origins of that original 1969 release? What did you do to get it to sound as good as it does?
Frankel: While we were lucky enough to have the master tape to work with on our Lim Taylor release, the same cannot be said for Janice’s LP. No master exists. You may be surprised to find that we used the audio from my personal Mint LP copy. And yes, I know it came out better than I could have imagined! We used all tube electronics from Low Output Moving Coil playback with no signal processing whatsoever. Clean in, Clean out! Speed-locked platter rotation via digital voltage correction allowed us the beauty of absolute pitch. I’m proud of how lucky we got. I don’t have a more exact date in 1969, as no studio records for the Pzazz label exist.

Curiosity still piqued, and much akin to having a “Where’s Waldo?” moment, I then asked Dave, “Who was Janice Tyrone?”

Replied Frankel, “Janice was born Janice Wesson, illegitimately to her mother Mary on July 24, 1952, in Rialto, Texas. Mary later married Frank Tyrone, and they had another daughter, Francine. We believe Frank was a good father to Janice, as she would later name her own son Frank. Janice married a gentleman named Glascow Maiden in 1970. Her son Frank was born the same year. They divorced in 1974. She remarried, to Laurence Adams in 1975, and they divorced the same year. She passed in 1992.”

Next, I wanted to know how Janice ended up with a Jimmy Webb song — “Mirror Mind” (Side 2, Track 2) — on her album, and how a rockabilly guitar dude like Jack Scott along with a funk/soul guy like organist Leon Haywood ended up doing the arrangements. Continued Frankel, “Knowing that Paul Gayten, the owner of Pzazz Records, was an accomplished R&B pianist and nephew of Little Brother Montgomery, it isn’t surprising that he was interested in promoting Little Janice’s sound. [For example, he was] able to record [artists like] Lorez Alexandria and Louis Jordan at Pzazz Studios in Los Angeles.”

Frankel added that he has personally spoken to only one person who recorded with Little Janice on this album — bassist David Parlato — and also got more information from guitarist Barry Zweig’s son-in-law before his passing in 2020. As the story goes, Janice “recorded most of her parts after the band had laid tracks down” and jazz guys Zweig, Donald Bailey, and Harvey Newmark provided guitar, drums, and bass respectively. When you see great groovy style guys like Leon Haywood and Clarence McDonald providing the organ, you’d like to think they must have seen potential in this 17-year-old girl.

With all that background now in mind, let’s talk about the album itself. My sessions with the new Today’s Youth – Tomorrow the World LP consisted of headphone listening with Focal Elears running through a McIntosh MA252 integrated amp. After a spin on the vacuum record cleaning machine, Little Janice’s music was brought back to life on my reference setup that consists of an Acoustic Solid Vintage Exclusive turntable fitted with a Hana Umami Red cartridge, Gold Note PH10 phono preamp and Gold Note PSU10 power supply, Torus RM15 toroidal power transformer, and Focal Chora 826 loudspeakers.

Side One starts off with an upbeat Motown-sounding track, “I Am a Soul,” which reminded me a lot of The Supremes. To be fair, the first time this track played, it kind of surprised me. I wasn’t expecting the sultry alto voice that started it off, with such deep expression and sincerity. Little Janice gives a nice touch of her higher register as she delivers the title’s lyrics, and the harmonies are intelligently placed. The band is bouncy with rich bass and crisp snare hits. Wow — I was now understanding why Frankel identified this one as a “killer opening track” when I asked him about his personal favorites.

The funky cowbell taps at the start of Track 2, “Texas Woman,” pull the listener in, as Janice’s voice rolls in smoothly. There’s an almost children’s song quality to the intro and background vocals, in sharp contrast with the bold lyrics. The main groove supplied by the organ and bass punches through with incredible clarity. Janice’s range is more evident as she belts, “Oh no!” to punctuate the very direct warning to not mess with her. There’s a nice bluesy way that she slides up and down the scales, keeping the forward tone rock steady from start to finish.

Slowing down the tempo for Track 3, “Since You’ve Been Gone,” hits all the marks on the emotional side. There’s a longing in the vocals and lyrics, paired with phenomenal guitar that convinces the listener that she’s really missing someone special. The subtle organ accents have a fresh ring that complement the tone of her voice and add to the plaintive message. Reality check — Janice was 17 at the time, remember, but that is not immediately what the listener hears. Perhaps it is her naturally lower-toned buttery sound that allows you to think about the lyrics, and not the tender age of the girl who wrote the words.

It is at this point that I must describe the quality of the LP pressing. Even with headphones, the recording is super-quiet, with just a hint of subtle background noise in between tracks. I’m not convinced that, even if Frankel had been able to get his hands on those elusive 55-year-old master tapes, this recording could have been that much quieter. The instruments and background vocals are separated and well-balanced without any lack of clarity to Janice’s vocal tricks. Inner Groove’s LP conveys the genuine vintage feel to the sound, which straddles somewhere between soul and the blues. Janice’s use of expressions in her rounded clear vowels, sustained sound, and timing all suggest that she could have been influenced by the very artists she enjoyed listening to at that time.

Side One continues on with “Stay Away From My Man” (Track 4), a funky upbeat number that has a late ’60s groove with phrasing reminiscent of popular singers of the day. Up next, “Grown-Ups” (Track 5) is a song that could have just as easily been recorded by any of her contemporaries. Flexing the higher end of her voice, Janice does come across more like a typical 17-year-old girl frustrated with the boundaries from adults. The last track on this side, “Not Til Him” (Track 6), continues that Motown-like sound with all the fantastic “woop woop doo doop dee doop” harmonies bridging between the groovy guitar and its sincere lyrics. It’s just a little bit awesome that this recording allows fabulous jazzy bass lines found in these last three tracks to shine.

Side Two is where it’s at for me. It starts off with the doo-wop-sounding “Walk Right In.” The crisp snap of fingers and background harmonies give the listener a peek into Janice’s ’60s twist on a ’50s sound. Next is the only track on this side that Janice didn’t write, “Mirror Mind,” where the songwriting credit goes to Jimmy Webb. Let’s take a moment to consider that Webb is the same man behind the writing of timeless classics such as “Up, Up and Away” by The 5th Dimension in 1967, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” — originally recorded in 1965 by Johnny Rivers, and then again by Glen Campbell in 1967, “Galveston” by Glen Campbell in 1969, and, of course, “Wichita Lineman” (Glen Campbell, 1968) and “MacArthur Park” (Richard Harris, 1968). And let’s also not forget Webb wrote four tracks for Linda Ronstadt’s wonderful October 1989 LP on Elektra, Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. At any rate, “Mirror Mind” is my favorite Today’s Youth track vocally, as it stretches Janice from soulful lows to full-voice highs. The reverberating sustained organ notes and twangy guitar fully captures that late ’60s sound to a T.

For Track 3, Janice is fully back into her element, the blues. I get it now. She was meant to sing “I’ve Got the Blues.” In full-on 12-bar mode, she sells it. The crisp tick-tick of the hi-hat and slightly fuzzed guitar solo are well separated, while her voice smoothly flows.

Honestly, the first time I read the title of Track 4, “Granny’s Got a Bikini,” it gave me a bit of a giggle. It’s a fun track, with lyrics that chastise an, ahem, older lady with “skinny legs and all” who dared let the teenagers see her sporting her new two-piece. Now, this sounds like more like a 17-year-old girl.

The album closes out with “Good Bye, Baby,” reaching back towards Janice’s gritty Texas soul roots and leaving the listener wanting more. There’s a melancholy, country feel to the lilting rhythm, while her voice soaks up the emotion and delivers it convincingly. Wow, what a truly magical find this album has been.

My original thought process about Little Janice was correct. This young, talented musician faded into the background, albeit with all that potential at her fingertips. It made me think about today’s young up-and-comers, and how their interwebs exposure has skyrocketed many careers. I wonder if, had Little Janice been born in this era, would she have achieved the same kind of recognition artists like Charlie Puth, Shawn Mendes, Lil Nas X, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, and even Justin Bieber (a local to me, from just down the road in Stratford, Ontario) enjoys? Would Little Janice have faded into obscurity if she had a TikTok account? Good questions all — but with no clear-cut answers, either.

All that said, I agree with Inner Groove’s major domo Dave Frankel. Every track on “Today’s Youth – Tomorrow the World is pretty darn great. And as far as our ratings go, we give the Music a 9 (such promise and execution!) and the Sound an 8 (given the source material). The whisper of surface noise in between tracks that I did pick up when using headphones wasn’t enough to distract or detract from the album’s overall enjoyment.

The story behind Little Janice is intriguing, but it is the music and her voice that shines again and again. After listening to Side Two more times than I’d like to admit, I really wish more people knew about Little Janice — so we here at AP hope this review brings some of the recognition she so rightly deserves. Considering that this new pressing of Today’s Youth – Tomorrow the World was only made possible due to Dave Frankel’s meticulous capturing of an album culled from his own collection, it’s nothing short of freaking awesome to have this little glimpse into music history to spin time and again. Give Inner Groove’s limited-edition release of Little Janice’s lone LP a shot on your own turntable — you will not be disappointed.

Author Bio: Shanon McKellar began collecting records when she was just a little kid. Music matters in every part of her life. A Canadian-born-and-bred vinyl enthusiast through and through, Shanon has been reviewing analog gear, albums, and reporting on trade shows since 2018.

LITTLE JANICE
TODAY’S YOUTH – TOMORROW THE WORLD
180g 1LP (Pzazz/Inner Groove Records)

Side One
1. I Am A Soul
2. Texas Woman
3. Since You’ve Been Gone
4. Stay Away From My Man
5. Grown-Ups
6. Not Til Him

Side Two
1. Walk Right In
2. Mirror Mind
3. I’ve Got The Blues
4. Granny’s Got A Bikini
5. Good Bye, Baby