Marcie and The Cookies

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Made up of Marcie Jones and the three Cook sisters, the all girl, vocal only group, Marcie & The Cookies, were a rarity in Australia’s “mod” music scene of the 1960's, dominated as it was by all male rock bands and solo artists.

Contents

[edit] Personnel

  • Marcie Jones (vocals)
  • Beverley Cook (vocals)
  • Margaret Cook (vocals)
  • Wendy Cook (vocals)

[edit] History

Marcie Jones started as a teenager with The Thunderbirds at Canterbury Ballroom and Preston Town Hall in Melbourne in the early 60's. She then went on to perform with Normie Rowe's band The Playboys and appeared on the Go-Show. She issued five singles from 1965 to 1967 on the Sunshine label with some minor chart success.

In 1967, on the suggestion of Normie Rowe, she teamed up with the Cook sisters (who were already performing as The Cookies) in Brisbane. Marcie & The Cookies were in the mould of such US acts as The Supremes and The Crystals. Within 12 months they had become widely known for Marcie's powerful voice, their vocal harmonies and synchronised stage movements as a result of their appearances on national TV shows, particularly on the pop music Go-Show. They toured Australia as support act for overseas artists such as The Monkees on their Australian December 1968 tour. That same year Marcie & The Cookies were presented the "best female act for 1968" award by national pop magazine Go-Set and were awarded the "critics award" for the top Australian vocal act.

As a group they released only two Columbia singles, however both these singles had regional success mainly in Melbourne & Brisbane. They were in demand for session work such as on the Tony Worsley & The Blue Jays track, Something's Got A Hold On Me. Particularly they should be recognised for their contribution, along with musicians - Brian Cadd - piano, Don Mudie - bass and electric guitar solo, Richard Wright - drums, (all of The Groop), Roger Hicks (of Zoot) - acoustic guitar intro/rhythm guitar and The Chiffons (Judy Condon, Maureen Elkner, Pauline Brady) on the recording of Russell Morris's ground breaking, psychedelic single "The Real Thing" in early 1969.

During 1969 and 1970 they toured South East Asia performing in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Bangkok and the Philippines. The tour included performances to Vietnam war servicemen at American bases. They then toured Europe for three years and were support act and back-up vocalists for Cliff Richard on tour in the UK.

On returning to Australia, Marcie Jones then resumed her solo career with a new manager and record label, Atlantic. She released an album and five singles between 1973 and 1976, the second of which, "Gonna Get Married", was her best chart success in 1974.

Marcie and the Cook sisters have continued to perform, both solo and with The Cookies (under the name of Marcie Jones and The Cookies), in stage shows, clubs, concerts and tours supporting major overseas artists until the present day. In their 40 year career they have toured with The Monkees, Gene Pitney, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Roy Orbison, Tom Jones, Del Shannon, Ray Stevens and other performers. They perform a mixture of sixties and soul, ballads and rock.

More recently Marcie Jones has embraced the country genre putting out a country CD in 1999.

[edit] Discography and Chart Positions

[edit] Marcie & The Cookies

Singles (45rpm)

  • All Or Nothing/I Would If I Could 1968 (#2 Brisbane, #28 Melbourne)
  • White Christmas/You On My Mind 1968 (#23 Brisbane0

[edit] Marcie Jones

Singles (45rpm)

  • Quiet/I Wanna Know 1965 (#29 Melbourne)
  • Imagine/When A Girl Falls In Love 1965
  • Danny Boy/That Hurts 1966
  • That's The Way It Is/Big Lovers Come In Small Packages 1967 {#34 Brisbane}
  • You Can't Bypass Love/He's Gonna Be Fine Fine Fine 1967
  • Armed And Extremely Dangerous/Over The Rainbow 1973 (#17 Brisbane, #22 Adelaide}
  • Gonna Get Married/I Found My Freedom 1974 (#10 Melbourne, #3 Adelaide)
  • I Only Have Eyes For You/Gonna Make It 1974 (#11 Adelaide)
  • Baby I Need Your Loving/Hurts So Good 1975
  • Back In Your Arms Again/I Like Your Music 1976

Albums(33rpm)

  • That Girl Jones - 1973

Compilation Album (33rpm)

  • The Bowl Show - 1965-66 - Includes two tracks - I Wanna Know/Quiet

(Shared with The Blue Jays, Peter Doyle, Toni McCann, The Playboys, Ricky & Tammy, Normie Rowe, Tony Worsley)

[edit] References

  • Noel McGrath's Australian Encyclopedia of Rock & Pop - 1978
  • Mondo Weirdo - Australia in the Sixties - James Cockington (Photo - John Hearder) - 1992
  • The Various Artist in Australia - Chris Spencer - 1990 - Moonlight Publishing
  • An Australian Rock Discography - Chris Spencer -1990 - Moonlight Publishing
  • The Who's Who of Australian Rock - Chris Spencer - Moonlight Publishing
  • Gavin Ryan's Chart Books

[edit] External links

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