The Now Sounds CD Book A Trip: The Psych Pop Sounds Of Capitol Records includes a song by The Burgundy Street Singers, a show band that hailed from Kansas State University. Despite their Midwest origins, the group was able to nearly conquer Hollywood and in so doing lined up numerous impressive television credits. In addition to appearing on several high profile shows, Jill Jaxx (nee Bunker) and friends recorded an album and several jingles, made countless personal appearances and appeared in industrial films. Jill, and twin sister Jan, has also had a very successful career post-Burgundy Street Singers.
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An Interview With Jill Jaxx
60sgaragebands.com (60s): What was it like performing with Jan, your twin sister? Prior to the Burgundy Street Singers, did you and she often perform together?
Jill Jaxx (JJ): Jan and I started singing together early, with the Chipmunk’s 'Christmas Song' for the first grade. She, however, was a piano prodigy and our family spent weekends traveling to piano contests with her. (Our parents were incredible musicians, and we were exposed to great music and completely supported in our pursuits. We were so lucky.) We sang some duets in church, performed in groups at school and for a play written for us, but it wasn’t until we rehearsed in the bathroom at our dorm at Kansas State to audition for the group that we got intentional—they said they needed some girls and (asked) could we sing, and we said, uh, yeah!
60s: Your big break came after winning the National Collegiate Jazz Festival. How successful was The Burgundy Street Singers prior to that event?
JJ: We had been performing everywhere we could—from the junior high gym in Russell, Kansas to two people, to the sold out Greek Week concert at Kansas State—but it was difficult and hard to maintain your grade point. We performed every weekend somewhere in Kansas for whomever—which is a good way to get good, by the way. After we entered and won the regional Intercolligiate Jazz Festival in Salt Lake City and became eligible to win the national title in St. Louis, we got really motivated. That was such a long shot—every group but us was sponsored by the University they represented, and had great directors and costumes, etc. We did our own arrangements and decorated our homemade mini-dresses with torn up sheets from the dorm. We never thought we would win in a million years—we were actually leaving the auditorium when they announced us. Jazz pianist Marian McPartlin was one of the judges, and she said she liked Jan's piano playing and our arrangements—a thrill for all of us since we had never sung jazz before that contest!
60s: Reportedly, Ed McMahon’s manager was responsible for bringing the group to California. Who was he? Did he remain your manager afterward?
JJ: Bob Coe, who was great, was our manager and Ed's (too). Soon after, Bernie Brillstein, who managed all the Saturday Night Live people (Gilda, Belushi, etc.) became our manager. He stayed our manager until Jim Fitzgerald entered our lives, and that propelled us into the Budweiser contract, the Carol Burnett Summer Show, Caesar's Palace opening for Anthony Newley, NBC specials with Ed McMahon, etc. Jim managed us for the remaining years, and every year was better than the last. He was an absolutely amazing manager, and we flourished under his excellent work.
60s: In addition to choreography and singing, the group performed comedy skits during your appearances. How would you best describe a typical Burgundy Street Singers performance?
JJ: We were highly energetic, extremely vocally talented and were taught to dance when we came to Hollywood by Alex Plasschaert, one of the best choreographers and teachers in the business. After six months with him, we looked like we’d always been dancers, which was quite a feat! We had very intricate vocal arrangements, everyone was an expert musician as well, and we just happened to all be good looking. That was just a fluke, although the LA Times said it was a flaw, and that we had been put together for our good looks and we were "faceless and soulless." In truth, it really was just a coincidence, although I will say every girl in our sorority in Kansas was beautiful!
Back to our performance: we had a good group sense of humor, and that came out in every performance—we were funny and very high spirited. The love of music and actually, on my part, the absolute joy of performing with such good musicians and singers inspired me every night and every performance. It was a GREAT show! We also had incredible arrangements from the best in the business: Michael Omartian, Larry Cansler, Fred Werner, and our own Dick Dow. When we played the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the whole Las Vegas strip of other entertainers came to our show on their nights off. Here's a Jack Nicholson story: At the Coconut Grove, we learned to do flips and all the jitterbug stuff to perform with Les Brown’s band for the comeback of Dick Haymes (engineered by Jim Fitzgerald.) On opening night, every movie star in town was in the audience. Jan was in one spotlight with her partner and I was in the other—we made it through the dance and I looked over at the end and thought, "Wow, I did it!" but there was no Jan and no Jimmy there. Her white pleated skirt had popped the zipper and fallen to the floor and she ran offstage in tears. (She came right back for the next number, of course!) 15 years later, Jimmy is in the men's room at the Crystal Palace in Aspen—there's Jack. Jimmy asks if he remembers us at the Coconut Grove. Jack (in his Jack voice): "Oh, yeah, one of the twins lost her skirt!"
60s: Your best known song is most likely ‘The Pleasure of Her Company,’ recorded for Capitol Records. A newspaper article at the time indicated the group resisted the “bubblegum” songs that Capitol was providing. What were your personal feelings regarding your Capitol tenure?
JJ: We had all just started songwriting ourselves, and we decided we could write better songs than were being offered us. It took awhile, because they would just give us demos and say, "you're singing this" and we thought we had no choice. We had good advice from management, (and my wonderful and talented parents!) which helped us resist the worst of the worst. We were right though—we did write better songs! We also had record deals with Daybreak, Frank Sinatra’s label, and recorded 'Lost Horizon' for them, and we had a deal with ABC too. That fell apart when Jim Croce died—the guy who signed us left after that and our record deal left too. We then recorded an album that we financed ourselves in an Oklahoma recording studio, but Jan and I were the only ones signed from that record—we got a deal with Warner-Curb, and Russ Regan was the one behind that. Jan and I recorded 'Makin' Our Dreams Come True,' the theme from Laverne and Shirley, and performed it on American Bandstand. Russ had already set up a European tour for us, and then without the songwriter’s permission, another version of the song was released and the promoters chose that record, not ours. Big disappointment for all involved!
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60s: The Burgundy Street Singers were very active in TV/films and jingle recording. Budweiser sponsored the National Collegiate Jazz Festival and signed you for film appearances and jingles, but how did you hook up with Evinrude and Johnson Outboard Motors?
JJ: Our manager, Jim Fitzgerald, had us appearing at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, at all the major state fairs in the country, and the Playboy Hotel in Miami Beach, as well as Park City in the winter for skiing and Maui for a month—our schedule was fantastic! He also hooked us up with John Tuzee, who was an ad exec for both companies. We also did Yamaha's national convention and wrote and performed their jingle.
60s: The group appeared in industrial films for many of those same products. What did your participation in these films involve? Were you background singers providing music, or did you perform out front and push the products?
JJ: We did lots of skits and sang their commercials. We actually recorded two for them, the first was "Bud…weiser, but you know that, but you know that!") for the Budweiser films, which mostly starred Ed McMahon and at one point, Frank Sinatra. We also performed for their national conventions, once working with The Carpenters. We were on the All American College Show (TV) with them years before. It was a competition with judges, and we beat them! (This was before they had all the hits). They were gracious when we met again—they were incredibly successful by that time!
For the Evinrude and Johnson Outboards, Jan and I did lots of skits on boats (ugh, we were always cold and wearing bikinis!) and we did the voiceovers and did the promo speeches too—we also toured for them and performed at their dealer shows—had a lot of fun and worked for John Tuzee, who handled the accounts (and wrote and directed the industrials.) He is Michelle Tuzee’s dad, BTW, the news anchor from ABC7. We actually wrote the music for the Evinrude commercials, which John Tuzee wrote the lyrics for.
60s: The Burgundy Street Singers list of TV appearances is impressive, and includes The Tonight Show, The Jimmie Rodgers Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Red Skelton Show, The Barbara McNair Show and Ed McMahon specials. Do you recall any others?
JJ: Yes, Jan and I did Happy Days, Celebrity Review (three times), and American Bandstand—all big thrills. The Jimmy Rodgers Show was a whole season, and we got to work with Bernadette Peters, Don Everly, Jackie DeShannon, and lots of others—still trying to get copies of those shows. Oh, the Burgundies also did a Lynn Anderson special from Nashville—her manager said he would send us the show—yay!
60s: The Burgundy Street Singers appear on the new Capitol Records Book a Trip CD compilation. What was your reaction when learning about it?
JJ: I heard about it from you. Wow! I wish they had contacted us so we were in the liner notes, but otherwise, cool!
60s: The Burgundy Street Singers started out as a “Folk” group, but later changed to a (at the time) more commercial rock sound, but also mixed in many different musical genres and stylings. How do you prefer to be remembered—as a folk group, as a rock group, or as something different altogether?
JJ: We were a "show group" who performed original pop material, with a rock-ish slant. We shifted out of folk really fast—although we did do some uptempo arrangements of a few things for years. We wanted to be a more versatile Fifth Dimension, with their great vocal arrangements, and we were, as they didn't play their own instruments. We also had costumes by ? and Bob Mackie, so we were more "Vegas" than other groups looked at the time. We were distinctly original in that we brought our fresh, Kansas take on things—we didn't do drugs and weren’t really jaded at all—we loved performing and knew we were very fortunate. We were also good songwriters, eventually, and we ended up owning our own recording studio, Rockit Studio, and putting out demo upon demo, as well as recording 'Fear,' Vince Gill, and Leon Russell too!
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