Heya - ZONK! (1970) - Pop Archives - Sources of Australian Pop Records from the 50s, 60s and 70s

ZONK!
Heya
(J. J. Light [Jim Stallings] - Robert Markley*)
New Zealand 1970

Single on HMV June 1970. Also released in the US on United Artists single.

Vocals are by singer and songwriter Shane Hales, also known simply as Shane: see his biggest hit single Saint Paul (1969, #1 NZ).

Zonk! was a studio band assembled for the single by Shane and producer Peter Dawkins.

Grant Gillanders at AudioCulture lists the personnel as Bruce "Phantom" Robinson (guitar), Rick White (ex-Tom Thumb, bass), Rufus Rehu and Bruno Lawrence (from Quincy Conserve, keyboards and drums), with backing vocals by Craig Scott, Alan Galbraith and "various HMV staff members".

*Label credits only Light as writer.

Reference, further reading: Audioculture's page on the Zonk! project probably has more than you'll find anywhere else. See also that site's Shane profile and gallery .

ADRIANO CELENTANO
Ea
(Jim Stallings [J.J. Light] - Bob Markley - Luciano Beretta - Michele del Prete)
Italy 1970

B-side on Clan Celentano label YouTube by Italian star of music and film, with Italian lyrics by Luciano Beretta and Michele del Prete.

Adriano Celentano also released Heya on singles in Germany and Austria (1970), with German lyrics by singer-songwriter-producer Michael Holm (b. 1943, Lothar Bernhard Walter).

They are presumably the same lyrics of Heya on a 1989 German EP by alternative band Brosch (see below).

J. J. LIGHT
Heya
(J. J. Light [Jim Stallings] - Robert Markley*)
USA 1969
Original version
#6 Austria #5 Belgium #12 Germany #8 Switzerland

Single on Liberty March 1969, produced by Robert Markley. Also on Liberty album Heya (1969, released in Germany but not in the US).

J. J. Light is a pseudonym of singer-songwriter-guitarist-keyboardist, Jim Stallings (b.1942, aka Jimmy or James). On another single on Beegee (1973) he is billed as James Michael Stallings (a.k.a. J.J. Light).

Heya reflects the Navajo or Diné heritage of Stallings. As a teenager he moved from his hometown of Farmington, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, where he followed a musical career for over 40 years, playing in bands that included Sir Douglas Quintet, Ruben Rodriguez & His Guadalajara Kings, and The Forerunners.

In 1959, aged 17, he wrote and recorded his first single I Played The Fool, billed as Jimmy Stallings on Paxley, the Hollywood label formed by Kim Fowley and Gary Paxton.

Jim Stallings is now based in Albuquerque NM and has continued to perform and release new albums of country, blues and Christian music (2020).

Stallings played bass in later line-ups of 60s band Sir Douglas Quintet, led by Doug Sahm (1941-1999), composer of She's About A Mover (1965) and Mendocino (1968). Stallings certainly joined in time to be credited on bass on their 1971 album The Return Of Doug Saldaña.

Although he is not credited in the liner notes, some sources place him with the band as early as Mendocino (1969 album), and Stallings himself has said recently that he "joined them on Mendocino" (October 1968 single).

After Doug Sahm left, Stallings stayed on to record with other remaining members as The Quintet on Future Tense (1971) which includes a version of Heya (see below).

References, further reading: 1. The Legend of Jimmy Stallings, interview and background at Alibi.com (2019). 2. The Jim Stallings interview at Cultmachine.com has a lot of background about the recording of 'Heya', and about his life and work right up to recent years. 3. KUNM Studio Sessions: Jimmy Stallings interview and performance with drummer Jeremy Barnes (2019), at YouTube. 4. Jimmy Stallings albums, including releases up to 2019, at Bandcamp.

* The label credits only Light as writer.

• US Copyright Office shows music by James Stallings, words by Bob Markley.
• BMI also has both Stallings and Markley (Work ID. 563859).
• Stallings has said: Bob Markley was my producer and also half-writer of all the songs on both records of the double-album "Heya" (Interview at Cultmachine.com).

Of 12 versions of Heya listed on this page, 6 credit Markley as co-writer and 6 do not. (There is no consistency across English and non-English versions.)

Later versions:

THE QUINTET
Heya, Heya
(J. J. Light [Jim Stallings] - Robert Markley)
USA 1977
Later version

Track on album Future Tense with the song's co-composer Jim Stallings (aka J.J. Light) on vocals, guitar and bass.

The Quintet was made up of members of Sir Douglas Quintet after leader Doug Sahm had left.

The line-up for the album was Jim Stallings (bass, guitar, vocals), John R. Perez (drums, vocals), Augie Meyers (piano, organ, twelve-string guitar), Frank Morin (saxophone, flute, harp, vocals) - all from Sir Douglas Quintet - with Byron Farlow (guitar, vocals) and guests Martin Fierro (saxophone, flute, percussion) and Luis Gasca (trumpet).

Further reading: Cash Box review of a 1971 concert where The Quintet and Sir Douglas (Doug Sahm) both appeared as separate acts. Jimmy Stallings played bass and shared lead vocals. (Facsimile in .pdf format, via American Radio History.)