Joseph Charles "Joe" Jones was an American R&B singer, songwriter and arranger, who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jones is also generally credited with discovering the Dixie Cups. He also worked with B.B. King. As a singer, Jones had his biggest hit in the form of the Top Five 1960 R&B hit "You Talk Too Much", which also reached No. 3 on the BillboardHot 100 chart.
Career
Jones served in the U.S. Navy, where he played piano in a band, before studying music at the Juilliard Conservatory of Music. He formed a band, Joe Jones and his Atomic Rebops, in the late 1940s; band members played on Roy Brown's 1947 hit "Good Rocking Tonight". He was expelled from the New Orleans local chapter of the American Federation of Musicians for attempting to set up a rival organization but was later reinstated. Jones became a valet, then pianist and arranger for B.B. King. He recorded his first solo single, "Adam Bit the Apple", for Capitol Records in 1954. He also discovered Shirley and Lee, whose recording of "Let the Good Times Roll" became a hit in 1956. In 1960, a re-recording of a song he had first recorded in 1958, "You Talk Too Much" on Roulette Records, became a national success, but his subsequent releases were less successful. Jones claimed to have composed many songs, including the song "Iko Iko." Although his assertions were originally successful, a federal jury and then Court of Appeals ruled that Jones did not write "Iko Iko," that his claims were fraudulent, and that the true writers were the band he managed, the Dixie Cups. The band hired music attorney Oren Warshavsky, who had previously won a case demonstrating that Jones falsely professed ownership of another Mardi Gras classic song, "It Ain't My Fault." Jones also failed in his bid to declare title to yet another Mardi Gras classic song, "Carnival Time." He also recorded the original "California Sun" on Roulette Records in 1961, which was made a hit by the Rivieras in 1963. He later moved into music publishing, and worked tirelessly for the rights of fellow R&B acts. In 1973 Jones set up a company in Los Angeles, California, making advertising jingles. He died in 2005 from complications from quadruple bypass surgery.
