Joyce Harris - I Cheated (1965)

Joyce Harris was born in Kentucky in 1939 and moved to New Orleans with her family when she was 13 years old. She learned to play guitar and write songs, and was soon performing duets with her younger sister Judy, as Joyce And Judy, releasing three singles – 'He's The One'/'Hey Pretty Baby', 'Washboard Sam'/'Nursery Rock (Beedle De Bop)' and 'Hey Little Baby'/'Rock And Roll Kittens' – all in 1958, until Judy got married and left the group. Joyce spent a year as part of a big band singing in restaurants in Mexico, and she released her first solo single 'It's You'/'The Boy In School' on New York’s U.T. Records at the end of 1959. A talent spotter saw her in Mexico and was impressed enough to secure her an audition with the Texas-based Domino label, and she was soon in the studio with Tommy Kaspar and Don Burch of Domino’s vocal quartet, The Slades. She wrote a lot of her own material, and her first single for the new label was an answer record to their local hit 'You Cheated', which she wrote overnight and recorded with The Slades. Her 'I Cheated'/'Do You Know What It's Like To Be Lonesome?' was released in October 1960, followed by 'No Way Out'/'Dreamer' in January 1961, which sold strongly enough to be licensed to Infinity Records. In 1963 Harris released the gospel-inspired 'Don't Knock It' under the pseudonym Sinner Strong (Strong was a family name, and the first name was a mis-hearing of her name Cina), and then a couple of years later she released her final single under her own name, with 'Baby, Baby, Baby' appearing in 1965. This was a more soulful recording and is now highly sought after on the Northern Soul circuit. In 1997 two previously unheard tracks recorded with the Daylighters surfaced on Ace Records' 'The Domino Records Story', and I can't leave those off as they are both prime slices of R&B, meaning that we now have everything that Joyce Harris recorded in her short career.   

Track listing

As Judy & Joyce
01 He's The One (single 1958)
02 Hey Pretty Baby (b-side of 'He's The One')
03 Washboard Sam (single 1958)
04 Nursery Rock (b-side of 'Washboard Sam')
05 Rock And Roll Kittens (b-side of 'Hey Pretty Baby' re-issue 1959)
As Joyce Harris
06 The Boy In School (single 1959)
07 It's You (b-side of 'The Boy In School')
08 I Cheated (single 1961, with The Slades)
09 Do You Know What It's Like To Be Lonesome (b-side of 'I Cheated')
10 No Way Out (single 1961)
11 Dreamer (b-side of 'No Way Out')
12 I Got My Mojo Working (previously unreleased, with The Daylighters)
13 Your Kind Of Woman (previously unreleased, with The Daylighters)
14 Baby, Baby, Baby (single 1965)
15 How Long (Can I Hold Back My Tears) (b-side of 'Baby, Baby, Baby')
As Sinner Strong
16 Don't Knock It (single 1963)
17 Nobody But Me (b-side of 'Don't Knock It')