Maybe I’m on my Jack Jones with this theory, but I’m convinced there were loads of famous people with that particular surname when I was growing up.
They were everywhere…everywhere, that is, except my immediate social circle.
I couldn’t move for Smiths as neighbours, at school, in football teams or at work – but I don’t recall any Joneses.
It was different out there in the real world. They seemed to pop up all the time.
No mean feat when you consider this was the phone-less, Google-less 1970s where most of your information about what was going on in the wide blue yonder came from just three TV channels and, bless ’em, the newspapers of the day.
The Joneses came from all walks of life – music, sport, movies, TV and politics – and somehow ingrained themselves in my burgeoning memory banks.
The goalposts would have been shifted big style if I had been brought up in Wales where the surname is widespread. In fact, one Welsh amateur rugby team once put out a side with 10 players called Jones in the starting line-up. Oh, and two of the subs as well.
But it wasn’t the same in Scotland where our equivalent was probably Johnstone or Johnston.
The Joneses may have been thin on the ground on a personal level, but the name still had a strong presence and familiarity for me.
There are bound to be even more well-known Joneses from the late 60s and 1970s, but these are the ones I remember…
Welsh
Tom Jones – singing superstar of the era who could belt out a proper tune at the drop of a pair of knickers on stage.
Terry Jones – comedian and writer who teamed up with Michael Palin, John Cleese et al to create the irreverent Monty Python’s Flying Circus and for that we must be eternally grateful.
Gryff Rhys Jones – Comedian who burst on to our TV screens in the late 70s in the ground-breaking Not the Nine O’Clock News show alongside Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith and Pamela Stephenson.
David Jones – footballer forever linked to Scotland’s Hand of Jord moment in a crucial World Cup qualifier at Anfield in 1977. Big Joe Jordan had his hand outstretched as he went up for a high ball with Jones and the ref, somehow, gave a penalty to Scotland.
Movies
James Earl Jones – award-winning actor who is probably best known as the voice of Darth Vader from the 1977 Star Wars blockbuster.
Shirley Jones – Hollywood actress who starred in musicals like Oklahoma and Carousel and who found fame second time around as the mum in TV’s The Partridge Family in the 1970s.
Sport
Ann Jones – Wimbledon winner in 1969 and a commentator for the BBC at the tournament through the 70s and beyond.
Mick Jones – footballer with Leeds United, one of the honorary Englishmen in a team packed full of Scots.
Music
Davy Jones – English singer with American pop group The Monkees. Pin-up of the group thanks to their hit TV show.
David Robert Jones – changed his name to Bowie because he didn’t want to clash with the afore-mentioned Davy. Wonder how that worked out for him?
Quincy Jones – Legendary singer/songwriter/producer with a career spanning over 70 years. Worked with all the greats.
Brian Jones – guitarist and singer with the Rolling Stones, the band he founded in 1962. Sacked by the others in the group in the summer of 1969, he drowned in his swimming pool just a month later.
Booker T Jones – musician who was the main man with Booker T and the MGs and who collaborated with some of the R&B greats like Otis Redding, Sam and Dave and John Lee Hooker
Grace Jones – sneaked in at the end of the 70s with hit singles like ‘Do Or Die’ and ‘La Vie En Rose’ before making it big in the 80s
John Paul Jones – bassist/keyboards player who was one of the founders of rock giants Led Zeppelin.
Mick Jones – lead guitarist with punk rockers The Clash, the group he formed in the mid-70s.
Miscellaneous
Jim Jones – founder of the cult group The People’s Temple responsible for mass murder-suicide of 900 people in jungle commune in Jonestown, Guyana, South America.
Jack Jones – General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union in the strike-crazy 1970s.
Fictional characters
Mr Jones – the owner of Manor Farm and the character who was overthrown in a coup by the animals in the Animal Farm book we had to study at school.
Miss Jones – Ruth in Rising Damp played by Frances de la Tour who was always being pursued by her landlord Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter).
Desmond and Molly Jones – from the Beatles/Marmalade song Ob La Di Ob La Da. If you’re wondering what happened to them they’re “Happy ever after in the market place.”
Mr Jones – features in the Jam’s 1978 hit Down in the Tube Station at Midnight where, unfortunately for him, he “got run down”.
Mrs Jones – as in 1972 hit Me and Mrs Jones by Billy Paul. Never find out her first name but if you turn up “every day at the same cafe, 6.30” you could always ask her.
Casey Jones – TV show featuring Alan Hale as the train driver of the Cannonball Express. “Casey Jones, steaming and a rolling..Casey Jones, you never have to guess..when you hear the tooting of the whistle, it’s Casey at the throttle of the Cannonball Express”.
Alias Smith and Jones – TV western series starring Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah “Kid” Curry, two outlaws trying to go straight. Murphy played Jones as the two of them kept one step ahead of the law to win a pardon from the governor.
Corporal Jones – don’t panic…I hadn’t forgotten Clive Dunne’s Home Guard character in the Dad’s Army TV series.
(Post by George Cheyne of Glasgow – October 2023.)
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