J.J. Barnes
b. James Jay Barnes, 30 November 1943, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Barnes built his reputation with a classic series of hard-driving Detroit soul records in the '60s, and is better known in the British 'Northern soul' scene than he is in his native America. A former member of the Halo Gospel Singers, Barnes's first single was Won't You Let Me Know (1960) for Kable, and later singles followed on Mickays and Ring with no success. He signed with Ric Tic in 1965 and three remarkable releases followed: Please Let Me In (1965), Real Humdinger (1966, US R&B Top 20 and pop number 60) and Day Tripper (1966), the latter a George Clinton production of the Beatles classic. In 1966, Barnes as part of Holidays, an ad hoc group that also included Edwin Starr and Steve Mancha, hit with I'll Love You Forever (US R&B Top 10). 
Barnes's contract and masters were acquired by Motown in 1966 but the company never released any of his recordings. In 1967, he moved to Don Davis's Groovesville, where he scored two hits, Baby Please Come Back Home (US R&B Top 10) and Now That I Got You Back (US R&B Top 50), sounding uncannily like Marvin Gaye. In 1968, Barnes switched to a companion label, Revilot, which yielded a northern soul favourite, Our Love (Is In The Pocket). Recognition in northern soul circles resulted in an album and a batch of singles recorded in the UK in the late '70s and early '80s of much lesser merit than his Detroit output. In 1991 he signed to Ian Levine's Motor City label releasing two singles and TRY IT ONE MORE TIME.