Judy Lynn – “America’s Western Sweetheart” – would get her one and only 45 picture sleeve, tragically enough, for this cheerful-sounding honky tonk tale in which the singer informs us she has only seconds to live before the “kindly” stranger who offered a ride at the train station prepares to break one of the Ten Commandments.
“Miss, May I Drive You Home“
Judy Lynn
(1968)
If only Lynn had left home with her trusty firearm…
An advertisement in Billboard‘s April 20, 1968 issue deems the song – strangely, disturbingly – as “wholesome“:
Judy Lynn’s guitar –
“the choice of winners”
Judy Lynn, America’s Western Sweetheart, lives up to her name in her latest Columbia release. “Miss May I Drive You Home” (Columbia 4-44489) is a fresh new Western tune with a wholesome, swinging sound. The flip side is a unique tune called “Green Paper.” Together, they’re a package that should be a winner. They’re backed by a guitar that’s the choice of “winners.” Like so many top entertainers, Judy’s choice of musical backing is a Gibson guitar.
Two months later, Jim Harper, program director for WKMF in Flint, Michigan identified “Miss, May I Drive You Home” as the “Biggest Leftfield Happening” in country music, as noted by Billboard in its June 8, 1968 issue.
Cash Box, who considered the single a “Best Bet” for the week of May 18, 1968, believed this “loping tale of tragedy” had the potential to “restore the songstress to former chart status.”
45 picture sleeve:
A-side
B-side
Kansas City radio’s, KCKN, meanwhile, told Record World in its May 11, 1968 issue that a “pop cover” of Judy Lynn’s “Miss, May I Drive You Home” would be a “stone smash” — KCKN, clearly unaware that the song had already been released the previous year in a countrypolitan arrangement by Ginger And Jean as the B-side of “What’s Been Going On In Viet Nam.”
“Miss, May I Drive You Home“
Ginger And Jean
(1967)
Ginger And Jean, as it turns out, is an alias for two of The Dinning Sisters — Virginia Moy “Ginger” Dinning and Eugenia Doy “Jean” Dinning — who were popular in the 1940s. Biographical details courtesy of Discogs:
American vocal group. From a musical family of nine children. Three of them, twins Jean (Eugenia) and Ginger (Virginia) with the sister Lou (Lucille), started to win amateur singing contests before 10 age, and later began to perform with older brother Ace’s Orchestra. Few lineup changed over the years: Lou was replaced in 1946 by Jayne Bundesen, who was in turn replaced by Dolores May “Tootsie” (Dinning) Edgin in 1952, but all of them remained involved in music. The Dinning Sisters brother is Mark Dinning [of “Teen Angel” fame]. The original three Dinning Sisters (Lou, Jean and Ginger) reunited in the 1980s, and performed through the 1990s. In 1988, Collectors Choice released an outstanding collection of their greatest hits, which is well worth checking out.
Written by Jean Surrey –
Pen name for Jean Dinning
File under: GUITARS, CADILLACS
The Greatest Gift of All
Music Reporter
Judy Lynn Music History Tidbits –
courtesy of BMI‘s Many Worlds Of Music
When Judy Lynn’s country and western show completed a 29-city tour of Sweden, the Government requested the troupe to spend the entire summer there next year.
“Judy Lynn Day,” proclaimed by Mayor Jay S. Amyz, was celebrated in Boise, Idaho, recently when the star returned to her home town. The day’s highlight: she performed at the scene of her discovery, a local auditorium.
Judy Lynn:
The Cincinnati Connection
How fascinating to learn that “American’s Western Sweetheart” would wind down her recording career in Cincinnati, having previously recorded the bulk of her material in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. According to the PragueFrank research team, Judy Lynn recorded three sessions between 1974 and 1979 at Artist’s Recording Company, a lesser-known sound facility in Lockland, a village just north of Cincinnati located along the (former) lock gates of the Miami & Erie Canal. Lockland was remarkable during the canal era for its 48-foot change in elevation that necessitated a series of locks, that, in turn, sparked local industry in the form of water-powered mills built at the canal’s edge.
Artist’s Recording was a popular recording destination for those affiliated with gospel and religious music. Landmark Baptist Temple Records, whose pressings were all handled by Artist’s Recording, issued a series of releases under the banner, “Great Sermons of the Twentieth Century.” Without a doubt, one of the most memorable titles from this series was a sermon contributed by Charles “Tremendous” Jones:
Leadership, Service, Dedication:
The New L.S.D.
(1970)
LINK to Gender politics in popular music
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