#18: Mister Nico by Four Jacks and a Jill
City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: August 1968
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #98
YouTube: “Mister Nico”
Lyrics: “Mister Nico”
Clive Harding was born in South Africa in 1944. At the age of eighteen he met Graham Woods in October 1962. Woods was in a band called The Atoms. Harding agreed to join the band if he could be the leader. The band changed their name to the Nevadas just before Graham Woods died from injuries sustained in a car crash in January 1963. Till Hannemann and Tony Hughes were among the new members of the ever-changing lineup in the Nevadas. The band changed their name again to the Zombies (different from the Zombies in the UK who had a hit called “She’s Not There”). The South African Zombies wore Beatles haircuts. At a concert in Cape Town the Zombies met Glenys Lynne Mynott who was a solo recording artist. She soon became a member of the Zombies, and shortly they changed their name to Glenys & the Zombies.
Glenys Lynne Mynott was from Boksburg, South Africa. She began singing when she was twelve. When she was fifteen, Mynott won the nationwide “Search For Talent” contest. Subsequently, she came in second place in L.M. Radio’s “Talent Parade” in Lourenço Marques, Mozambique. At age sixteen Glenys Lynne Mynott recorded her debut album, Teenage Time, with Columbia Records. After graduation from school, Glenys sang with the Harold Roy Band in Benoni, Gauteng, in northeastern South Africa for seven months. In 1962 she starred in Jy’s Lieflik Vanaand (You’re Wonderful Tonight) in which she sang the song “‘n Bietjie Te Jonk” (“A Little Too Young”). Next she went on a four-month tour of South Africa with Johnny Kongos and the G-Men. In 1963 she released her first single “Not Because I’m Bad”, this time with RCA. Then in 1964 she got a four- year record deal with Teal Records.
In January 1965 Glenys & the Zombies went on tour in South Africa opening for Peter And Gordon, who sang their international hits “A World Without Love”, “Nobody I Know” “I Go To Pieces” and “True Love Ways”. As the year moved along, more and more bands in South Africa were adopting Beatles haircuts and playing “beat” music. The manager of Glenys & the Zombies decided to change their look, cut their hair, and forge a folk-pop sound. They were also given a new name: Four Jacks And A Jill. At this point the group consisted of Glenys Lynne on vocals, Clive Harding on bass guitar, Tony Hughes on drums, and Bruce Bark on guitar.
In 1966 Four Jacks And A Jill had a Top Ten hit in South Africa titled “Jimmy Come Lately”. The song was a cover of the 1962 Brian Hyland hit “Ginny Come Lately”, which peaked at #9 in Vancouver (BC). The song was written by Gary Geld and Peter Udell who also wrote Hyland’s #3 hit in the USA, “Sealed With A Kiss”.
This was followed by several Top 20 hits in South Africa: “No Other Baby” and “The House With The White-Washed Gable”. The former song had some baroque-pop accents, and the latter had some British Dance Hall effects. They had a number-one hit in South Africa in the fall of 1967 titled “Timothy”. But their biggest success came with the recording of “Master Jack”. At the time of the recording Till Hannemann had joined Four Jacks And A Jill as an additional guitarist.
The next single release by Four Jacks And A Jill was “Mister Nico”.
David Marks wrote “Mister Nico”. The song is about an old shopkeeper who is told to “close up shop.” There are development plans, and he has to “make way for concrete and steel.” The song questions the sacred cows of “progress,” noting that “progress can for many men, be the start or mean the end.” In the song, Mister Nico is forced to leave, finally, when he was told to move out. The song begins depicting what Mister Nico is leaving: “broken windows, bolted doors, dust lies thick upon the floors. Soon machines and men will be, breaking down what’s part of him.”
“Mister Nico” peaked at #2 in Fredericton (NB), and #22 in Burlington (VT). It also charted in the Top 40 in Calgary (AB), and Regina (SK).
Their subsequent release, “Hey Mister”, climbed into the Top 30 in Calgary and Lethbridge (AB) that winter.
In March 1968, Four Jacks and a Jill were the supporting act for Canadian singer Lucille Starr and her husband Bob Reagan on their South African tour. On June 21, 1968, Four Jacks And A Jill flew to Hamburg, Germany where they appeared on the German television program, Schaubude, in colour. They travelled to Holland where they were featured in a made-for-TV film. Several TV appearances followed in London, England. Then the group flew to America for a tour. This included an appearance in the WVOK-AM Summer Spectacular in Birmingham, Alabama, alongside Herman’s Hermits, The Troggs, The Ohio Express, The Buckinghams, and Boyce and Hart. Four Jacks And A Jill were guests on the Jerry Lewis Telethon which had a viewership of 20 million people. Four Jacks and a Jill also performed in Tampa (FL), Montgomery (AL), Buffalo (NY), and Muskegon (MI).
Sandie Alvey Thurston, recalls : “Back in the late 1960’s, the 4 Jacks & A Jill drove through my town, Dumfries, Virginia, while on their US tour. They stopped for the night at the Holiday Inn where I was the night desk clerk on duty at the time. They were hungry, and there were no restaurants opened at that time of night, so I brought them to my house for tomato sandwiches. They stayed for a while, sitting on our dock talking, and left town the next morning. I lost track of them after that, but have always wondered if they remembered me and my family.”
Four Jacks And A Jill did more touring in Germany and Holland before returning to North America. They gave a concert in Montreal and toured Nova Scotia with The Sandpipers and Mitch Ryder. They performed in concert in in Montgomery, Alabama, at the WBAM-AM winter show. They shared the stage with Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, Billy Joe Royal, Davy Jones (of The Monkees), Andy Kim, The Buckinghams, The Grassroots and others. They also performed in Atlanta, Washington D.C., New York City, Philadelphia and Columbus (OH).
In 1969 Four Jacks and a Jill won South Africa’s SARIE Award in the category Best Beat Group. In 1970 Percy Sledge was allowed to perform before an all-white audience, but Four Jacks And A Jill were not allowed by the Apartheid government to sing at a concert for a black audience. More tours to various countries in Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand followed. Till Hanneman left the group at the end of 1969.
In 1974 Four Jacks And A Jill had a Top 20 hit in South Africa with “Universal Feeling”. By 1983 Four Jacks And A Jill had toured to South America, North America, Europe, Africa and Australia/New Zealand. Their seventh and final album, Sell A Million, was released in 1976.
In 1982, Tony Hughes left the group. Then in 1983 Glenys and husband Clive (who married in the late ’60s) became born-again Christians. They dedicated their lives and music to the Lord and, after recording a Gospel album in 1983, Clive disbanded Four Jacks And A Jill. Four Jacks and a Jill performed at over 3500 concerts during their 18 years of touring. Tony Hughes became an insurance executive in greater Johannesburg. Bruce Bark has continued to perform as a musician.
May 2025
Ray McGinnis
References:
“About Us,” 4JacksAndAJill.co.za.
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, (Back Bay Books, 1995).
“Four Jacks And A Jill Scored At No. 18,” Lewiston Tribune, Lewiston, Idaho, April 14, 2006.
“David Marks (Songwriter),” Wikipedia.org.
CFNB 550-AM Fredericton (NB) Top 20 | August 31, 1968
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