Judy Jacques - You’re Messin’ Up My Mind (1966)

(Van McCoy )
 Australia

B-side on Astor by singer and TV personality from Melbourne.

Judy Jacques remained a gospel singer at heart. Her group Gospel Four stood out in 1960s Melbourne for its Black American gospel influences, so it is not surprising that she could also sing with a jazz band, or that Messin’ Up My Mind became a Northern Soul dancefloor track in later years.

[Messin’ Up My Mind] had immediate appeal for me, an African-American blues connecting to the old blues singers I loved, something to get my teeth into…

Judy Jacques to David Johnston, The Music Goes Round My Head (2010), p. 138

Jacques first recorded with the Yarra Yarra New Orleans Jazz Band (1962) and with Gospel Four (1963). She often appeared on major TV shows including the top-rating In Melbourne Tonight on GTV-9, the channel she signed with late in 1963.

Musically, Jacques ventured into more popular genres including the soul-blues stylings of Messin’ Up My Mind, and her TV appearances took in TV pop shows such as The Go!! Show and Bobby & Laurie’s Dig We Must. When the latter was replaced by Start Living it was compered by Jacques with Idris Jones.

The A-side was Since You’re Gone, a more sedate Bobby Darin song from 1959, originally called (Since You’re Gone) I Can’t Go On.

Further reading:
1. Judy Jacques profile and interview in Melbourne Age, 5 February 1963.
2. Jordie & David Kilby, Rare Collections – Northern Soul from Down Under: Australian tracks played in English Northern Soul venues (from the ABC Radio series).

Essential reading:
Robin Ryan ‘You’re Messin’ Up My Mind’: Why Judy Jacques Avoided the Path of the Pop Diva: detailed account of Judy Jacques’ career and her relationships with gospel, jazz and pop,