Ozark Mountain Daredevils – Jackie Blue…1970’s AM Radio Gold Week

I haven’t had a theme week in a while. This week will be 1970’s songs that you would have heard on AM Radio back then that were big pop hits…as you were cruising in your parent’s LTD or some other vehicle.

This is one of those AM Gold radio singles from the seventies. It’s made to be heard through an AM station while you are riding in your…insert your 1970s car of choice (mine would be an Opel GT).

Opel GT - Wikipedia

Ricks Radio Conversions - Radio Conversions, Car Radio Conversion

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils were, in one word, eclectic. They have been called southern rock, country, country rock, and pop. This song is one of those great pop hits during the mid-seventies. It is part of my childhood DNA.

The band started out with the name “Family Tree” but they found out that another band was using that name, so they stopped using it. They soon had a “naming party” and came up with “Cosmic Corn Cob & His Amazing Ozark Mountain Daredevils” but decided to shorten the name…and none of the band wanted to be called Cosmic Corn Cob.

The song was written by bandmates Steve Cash and Larry Lee. The song was inspired by someone they had met in L. A. that was strung out on drugs. It was a guy who partied way too much…when they recorded the song, they changed Jackie to a girl.

This song was off of their It’ll Shine When It Shines album released in 1974. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, and #9 in New Zealand. It was the biggest hit of their career…they are known most for this song and If You Want To Get To Heaven. After their first two albums, they didn’t have a lot of big hits but retained a good following. They have released 8 studio albums and 6 charting singles…the latest album was released in 2018 called Off The Beaten Path.

Dave from A Sound Day has more info on this song.

Bassist Mike ‘Supe’ Granda: “[Ozarks drummer] Larry Lee brought the song to us. He said he wrote it about a guy we knew. Every night, this guy would go out to the nightclub with a wad of money and a pocket full of blow and he’d be out there chasing women. “So we played this song for about a year. After we recorded the song we went to LA to mix it, and A&M said: ‘You’ve recorded a number one song, but Jackie needs to be a girl.’ So Larry took Steve Cash, our lyricist, into the other room, and three or four hours later they came out and Jackie was a girl. Larry laid his vocals down, and it flipped all of us out. “We’d been hearing this song about a guy for a year-and-a-half, and all of a sudden it was about a girl. But it sounded great.” 

Jackie Blue

Ooh, Jackie Blue
Lives her life from inside of her room
Hides a smile when she’s wearin’ a frown
Ooh, Jackie you’re not so down

You like your life in a free-form style
You’ll take an inch but you’d love a mile
There never seems to be quite enough
Floating around to fill your lovin’ cup

Ooh, Jackie Blue
What’s a game girl, if you never lose?
Ask a winner and you’ll probably find
Ooh, Jackie they’ve lost at sometime

Don’t try to tell me that you’re not aware
Of what you’re doing and that you don’t care
You say it’s easy, just a natural thing
Like playing music, but you never sing

Ooh, Jackie Blue
Making wishes that never come true
Going places that you’ve never been
Ooh, Jackie Blue, you’re going again

Ooh, Jackie Blue
Lives a dream that can never come true
Making love is like sifting through sand
Ooh, Jackie, it slips through your hand

Every day, in your indigo eyes
I watch the sunset but I don’t see it rise
Moonlight and stars in your strawberry wine
You’d take the world but you won’t take the time

Ooh-hoo-hoo, Jackie Blue
Lives her life from inside of a room
Makes you think that her life is a drag
Ooh Jackie, what fun you have had

Ooh, Jackie
Ooh, Jackie
Ooh, Jackie
Ooh, Jackie
Hey, hey, hey, hey

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

53 thoughts on “Ozark Mountain Daredevils – Jackie Blue…1970’s AM Radio Gold Week”

  2. Jackie Blue became a woman that is always in pursuit of happiness, but she never gives anything a long enough time to make her happy. She gets bored easily, so there “never seems to be quite enough” to satisfy her.

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  3. Thanks for the mention and link! Definitely one of my favorite songs of that whole decade… if you take away the hits by big-time stars with long careers (like Elton John, former Beatles, Eagles, Steely Dan) it probably ranks in my top 10 of the “K-tel” sort of 70s songs.
    Cool car pix! Back then I think those long-hood Monte Carlos were my favorite. Around when I was learning to drive, my dad had a giant 1978 (?) Olds 88 that was as close to a Cadillac as he ever got, but just as big and my Mom, who only learned to drive a bit before I did, had an old Gremlin! That was a chore to try to drive – no power steering!

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    1. K-Tel…there’s a term I haven’t heard in years. I still have a couple of those albums…somewhere.

      Those 70s gas guzzlers were party barges. My paternal grandparents had a ’76 Chevy Caprice and my Dad’s state car was a 1972 Plymouth Fury.

      My second car was a 1981 Toyota Tercel…no power steering…no air. It was like driving a tiny tank.

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      1. Those cars WERE party barges…you could live in the damn things…we had a Lincoln at one time…it was so so so so comfortable.

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    2. I really want to get that Opel one day….they are not expensive as the other cars from that era…
      A Gremlin! that is great! I learned when I was 13 in a Ford Fairmont I believe….later on a Honda that belonged to my sister.
      This gave me an idea on a new post….coming Wednesday after the TZ publishes.

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    1. It is a great song to drive to. I remember you saying that…didn’t it break down somewhere or did you sell it when you went back home?

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  6. Great track, this. Their performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test was one that sticks. I HAD thought I’d seen them play in Glasgow, but can”t find the ticket stub and can’t recall anything specific of the show – so i guess they must be one of the bands I wished I’d seen. 😀

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    1. I love The Old Grey Whistle Test! So many great bands were on there and I can’t think of his name but he was a great host.
      My list is long!

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  7. Great record i bought this one when i was 17. It wasnt a uk hit but it got good radio plays anyway. The AM radio sound cruising US highways was still 4 years away for me when this was around, but i loved those radio stations when i got to hear them. Something about the sound of tracks like this just sounded so good on sunkissed highways 🙂 still did on oldies stations in the 90s and 00s too!

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    1. Some songs are just meant to be heard on the radio… I sometimes turn AM on here but all I get is talk radio now.
      The crackles with AM added to the experience.

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  8. I never knew this was a man singing! Oops! It’s a simple tune but one you remember. Good radio gold. I went out to youtube to find other songs by OMD and found this one that I remember well also:

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    1. I love this song…when I was around 6-7 my mom jumped me when she heard me singing this song around the house because of Hell…lol.

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  10. Even if their music would totally suck, I would give the Ozark Mountain Daredevils extra points for their cool name. Based on your description, it sounds like I really should have heard Jackie Blue on the radio back in the ’70s, but I don’t recall it. That being said, I find it pretty enjoyable.

    The other thing I have to tell you is I’m impressed with your choice of car, Opel GT. With Opel being the German subsidiary of GM, you could say that car quite frequently in Germany in the ’70s. Did they offer it in the US as well? Based on how I remember it, it was pretty tiny, almost like a blown-up Matchbox toy car – not exactly what you picture when thinking of boat-size ’70s American cars! 🙂

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    1. It was on the radio a lot here for sure… The car…yes but you don’t see that many now. There was a wooden handle in the middle of the car that you pulled and the lights would twist around…not pop up I don’t think. I saw a lot when I grew up…I was looking for my first car and my dad looked at one but it was in too bad of shape.

      They are not too expensive and that is my dream car…you can get an old one for around 3-8 grand…I would love to have one as a project car…although I don’t know about cars…but older ones are easier to figure out.

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      1. The Opel GT is a handsome looking car. I don’t think you see many of them in Germany either these days.

        Another sportive model by Opel, which was really popular in Germany during the ’70s, was the Opel Manta, though there was also a time when people would make mean jokes about Opel Manta drivers.

        My “dream car” remains a Porsche 911. The shape of that car is just iconic and pretty much remains in place, 50-plus years after that model was introduced in 1964.

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      2. No you don’t see many. I love a Porsche also and yes I love the 911’s.
        See I kept my dream car cheap lol…so maybe one day I might could get one. Those Porsche 911 older models I think are not crazy

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      3. You’re a smart man, Max. BTW, I know next to nothing about cars. I just simply love the shape of the 911.

        When I was a grad student in Tuebingen, a professor whose seminar I attended once took us on an excursion to the Porsche factory near Stuttgart. That was really cool.

        At least back then, these cars were pretty much hand-assembled – no conveyor belts, no industrial robots. They were literally pushing these gorgeous vehicles by hand through the factory hall.

        We also got to see a station where they tested the engines. As they were revvying them up, the exhaust pipes turned red – boys with toys! 🙂

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      4. I know NOTHING about cars but I would learn if I had one of those to work on lol…I really would. My brother in law did teach me some about older cars…I know enough to know you or I could work on them…but new cars? Forget about it.

        Oh…Bailey was amazed about Germany over this fact…he said Dad…every Taxi Cab is a Mercedes! Which makes sense

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      2. There is one song they wrote together that could pass for power pop…”Down On My Knees”

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  12. I remember the song well. As you say, cruising in my 327 Chevy Malibu with the AM radio turned to 10. The blown dash mounted speaker added character to most songs, except the Supremes and the Archies. I saw these guys play at Boley and Wilson’s club on Greenville Ave in Dallas. Just stopped in one Saturday night, and there they were, live and in person. Most of my rock memories are from the 60s, but I did capture a few in the early 70s. What happened to these guys?

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      1. Good to know. I saw one in town a few months back. Old guy like me driving around looking cool. My wife’s father had a 65 GTO that she would drive ever so often. She shut everyone down with that car. Including me and my Malibu. Back in the 60s it seemed everyone at school drove a muscle car because they were all that way. Large V8’s, stick shifts etc. Only the studious kids drove Corvairs and VW bugs.

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  13. Pingback: Ozark Mountain Daredevils – Jackie Blue…1970’s AM Radio Gold Week – MobsterTiger

  14. This will be a fun theme. The Daredevils were like a house band in my region (KC/eastern KS), and this song achieved earworm status. My AM radio back then was the Realistic Weathercube, that also had the AM band. If I was in my bedroom, it was on, tuned to a KC pop or country station. Today, I listen to sports on AM radio. Oddly, there isn’t a strong enough FM station signal here for listening to the Kansas Jayhawks and KC Chiefs. AM is better.

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    1. I remember those radios. I just bought one at a yard sale not long ago. That is odd about the FM radio strength there for those two teams. Those are two huge sports programs.

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    2. Jeff…that jazzy comment must have made you wonder about my sanity…I was thinking…when I typed it… about Undun by the Guess Who…sorry about that.

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