On a Sunday Afternoon

"Ho Happy Day" is the feel good Sunday afternoon anthem for lotsa reasons. Not the least of which is the lyrics, which are on some I'm-walking-through-the-park-with-my-baby-and-life-couldn't-be-more-awesome. What's less awesome is how expensive the record has become (at least for those who missed out on copies before the price jumped). But if you're down for an extremely convincing and far more affordable alternative peep this Joneses track, the horn melody from which is virtually identical to that on the Flame N King.

The Joneses "Name of the Game Pt. 1" (Mercury, 1979)

The Joneses had a bunch of similarly strong disco-soul singles from the era - "Who Loves You," "In Love Again," and of course...

I always figured they were a family group, or at the very least all the members had the same last name. You know, like the Ramones. But as I recently learned from an article on the group in an old issue of Black Stars that wasn't the case. In fact, one of the dudes in the group was named Reggie Noble.

The caption to this photo reads: "Reggie, whose range is incredible, is one of today's best tenors." I believe this was also once written about Redman in The Source.