Jimmy Briscoe & The Little Beavers

The time on the clock read 10:13am and this morning I was in my kitchen busily seasoning up some cornish hen halves to marinate before dinner this evening. As I stood by my kitchen window, I listened to some music that was playing loudly on someone's car stereo........

Dude was playing "My Ebony Princess" by Jimmy Briscoe & The Little Beavers!!!!

I have not heard this song in YEARS!!! As I seasoned my hens, I hummed along with the tune and smiled broadly. Boy, did this music bring back some memories for me...This song was a big hit in my neighborhood in 1975.......

lol in the summer of 1975 I was 14 years old and had just graduated from Arthur A. Schomburg Intermediate School 201 (I.S. 201) in Harlem and our graduation was at Mother AME Zion Church, we marched in to the song "Ease On Down The Road" (from The Wiz) and I got to stand on the pulpit with Virgie Auld as we each sang solo verses as our senior class marched in. I attended my senior prom at The Celebrity Club on 125th Street (in a peach gown with black patent strappy wedge sandals) with my very best friend Tommy Brock as my date and had just gotten my 1st period 5 minutes before we walked out the door. I usually wore my hot comb pressed hair in a mushroom hairstyle that I had carefully roller set the night before...lol.

I had gotten my first kiss by the mailboxes in the hallway of 30 East 128th Street from a 19 year old puerto rican boy with a beautiful afro and hypnotic eyes named Angel (lol..it turned my stomach so badly that I had to go and lie down for the rest of the day). I had a cherry Jolly Rancher in my mouth that he had to ask me to remove (yeah...I was THAT naive..lol)

That summer was a banner year for light skinned boys with huge J5-Sylvers afros and light eyes!!! I was headed to John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx in the fall and looking forward to the next big chapter of my life.

I wonder where Jimmy Briscoe is and what he looks like now.......

Music is wonderful isn't it?

Enjoy the song and may it jog some happy memories for you as well family!

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."