Listen/Download – The Magistrates feat. Jean Hillary – After the Fox MP3

Greetings all.

I hope the middle of the week finds you well.

The tune I bring you today is one of those groovy 45s that sought to surf the wave of a musical trend, in this case the tsunami of ‘Horse’ records in 1968 (see here*) spawned by Cliff Nobles and Company.

The interesting thing is that the group in question, a studio assemblage called the ‘Magistrates’ had already had a hit, earlier in 1968 doing (much more successfully) the same thing, except with the ‘Here Comes the Judge’ fad (which you can read all about in the old Funky16Corners web zine).

The Magistrates were two members of the Dovells, Jerry Gross (who also worked with a bunch of Philly acts as a songwriter, producer and arranger), Mike Freda, and a vocalist named Jeannie Yost, working under the name ‘Jean Hillary’.

‘Here Comes the Judge’ was a minor national hit in May of 1968, and a big single in Philadelphia.

They followed it with ‘After the Fox’ ( a very thinly disguised attempt at a ‘Horse’ number) in August of that year, but only really got any play locally.

The resulting number is a funky dancer, with a guitar line and bridge that get as close to Cliff Nobles as possible without being an outright rip, as well as a wailing vocal by Yost/Hillary.

There’s enough meat on the record that it manages to transcend the ‘novelty’ label.

It’s a groovy one, and I hope you dig it.

See you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

*Oddly enough, when that piece was written 15 years ago, I hadn’t yet picked up the Magistrates 45, so it isn’t mentioned!

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.