Well, this album turned out to have a story. What does J.K. stand for? Well, J.K. stands for Jay Kaye, an, at the time, 15 year old Las Vegas teen from a musical family (his uncle was a famous ukulele player named Johnny Ukulele ... I told you there was a story). After his mother, a world renowned Las Vegas guitarist and singer who is credited with starting the Las Vegas "lounge act" phenomenon, turned down an opportunity to record an album in Vancouver during a stop there, her son jumped at the offer and demoed his songs.
The studio head liked what they heard and so Mary left her 15 year old son there, where, from what I've read, it appears he did a bunch of LSD and put together this one-off album with the help of a teenaged arranger and a studio band called Mother Tuckers Yellow Duck. Then ... yes there's a then ... they took the album to Los Angeles, walked into the offices of White Whale (an independent label best known for The Turtles) who loved what they heard and put it out.
But ... the album, with this psychedelic dirge as it's single, bombed, and J.K. and the band of teenagers he'd put together to promote the album, were all too young to play the clubs, so they got no traction in the scene and went their own ways having blown all the money on the instruments for their band. And that's the story! I think my favorite part is still "Johnny Ukulele".
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