Vickie Jones

Mary Jane Jones (c. 1942-2000), known professionally as Vickie Jones, was an American singer who became famous in 1969 for impersonating Aretha Franklin.

Jones was born in Virginia and first sang with the Great Gate, a touring Baptist church choir led by the Reverend Billie Lee. A single mother of four children, Jones struggled to make ends meet, and sometimes performed in local nightclubs for $10 per night. Jones idolized Aretha Franklin, who was the same age and had also got her start in a church choir, and consciously imitated not only her voice but her physical appearance. When the Reverend Billie Lee discovered that his star singer was moonlighting in nightclubs, he was initially worried, but decided in the end not to intervene.[1]

At a January 1969 nightclub engagement in Richmond, Vickie shared the bill with Lavell Hardy, whose record "Don't Lose Your Groove" had reached Number 42 on the Cashbox singles chart. Hardy was impressed by Vickie's close vocal and physical resemblance to Aretha Franklin, and hatched a scheme to profit by the similarity. He convinced her to come to Melbourne, Florida[2] to perform six shows for $1000, supposedly as the opening act for Aretha Franklin. When she arrived in Florida, she learned that she would actually be impersonating Franklin herself. Vickie initially refused, but Hardy threatened to throw her "in the bay" if she didn't go along with the scheme.[1]

Aretha Franklin's legal team became aware that an impersonator was performing in Florida under her name, and called the Florida authorities to expose the hoax.[3] Jones appealed to the Ocala County prosecutor, who decided that she was an innocent victim of Lavell Hardy. She was asked to sing during the trial, and the judge reasoned that she sounded so much like Aretha Franklin that the audience had not in fact been defrauded.[4]

Two weeks after her arrest, Vickie Jones shared a stage with Duke Ellington, who was touring Florida at the time and was impressed by her abilities. He felt that Jones should break away from the Aretha Franklin image and develop her own persona.[3] For a while Jones continued to tour under her own name, and enjoyed enough success that a singer in Richmond pretended to be Vickie Jones.[3] However, after a year of touring she decided to quit show business in order to care for her four children.

References
  1. Maysh, Jeff (July 2018). "The Counterfeit Queen of Soul". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  2. Colgrass, Neal (7 July 2018). "'I Was Scared': Kidnapped Singer Becomes a Star". Newser. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  3. Higgins, Chester (6 March 1969). "Posed as Soul Sister Aretha". Jet.
  4. McCabe, Scott (14 February 2013). "Crime History: Virginia woman arrested for Aretha Franklin impersonation". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
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