by Richard Skelly » Fri Mar 02, 2018 3:03 am
Playboy Records seemed hatched by Hugh Hefner to parlay the vocal stylings of his main squeeze Barbi Benton onto national airwaves. A pert Playboy fan favourite (who apparently never was a Playmate Of The Month), she managed to chart a few country singles. So did labelmate Mickey Gilley. But it was left to Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds to enjoy the label’s biggest success, the chart topping Fallin’ In Love. Alas, the imprint had the dubious distinction of fumbling the first ABBA singles ever released in North America. To be fair, the quartet—at that point—went with the less-memorable Björn and Benny, Agnetha and Anni Frid.
A couple of Canadians were also on the roster. Denny Doherty, the great tenor from the Mamas and Papas and Toronto soulstress Shawne Jackson. Not much biographical info readily available when I googled Ms. Jackson. According to author Steven Maynard she was part of the black diva brigade of singers like Dianne Brooks who performed at local clubs and earned decent money singing backup on recording sessions.
Somewhere along the line, she worked with and married ace guitarist Domenic Troiano. A veteran of Toronto funk-rock bands like Mandala and Bush, he later succeeded Joe Walsh in The James Gang. The Guess Who then drafted him to replace two departing guitarists...Kurt Winter and Donnie McDougall.
Just before joining Burton Cummings and Co. Troiano wrote and produced Just As Bad As You for his spouse. Ms. Jackson ruled Canadian airwaves in the spring of 1974. Twenty-six years later, the song would be honoured by performing rights society SOCAN for its airplay longevity. After going solo, Troiano turned to scoring music for tv shows like Counterstrike (with Christopher Plummer). Sometimes Shawne Jackson sang on those soundtracks. At the time of his 2005 death, Troiano and Jackson had parted.
Author Maynard contends Jackson was the perfect vessel for a song, written by a beret-donning Italian Canadian who managed to create a “black-feminist anthem.” This Toronto gal wasn’t singing poor-pitiful-me blues but vowing to give as good (or bad) as she gets in a relationship. Maynard felt the song’s message resonated over the decades with Toronto’s LBGTQ population.
Stateside, Just As Bad As You only had a three-week run on Billboard’s Hot 100 cresting at #98 on June 22, 1974. Still a darn sight better than the pre-ABBA ABBA ever achieved. For his part, ex-Maritimer Denny Doherty only charted a Playboy release, You’ll Never Know, on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary survey, but missed any slot on the Hot 100.