Ask anyone who knows their soul "what is your favourite female group of all time", and don't be surprised if they answer "The Jones Girls".

Why? Because this is a group that has produced some of the tracks that defined a generation of soul music, and technically are as good as anyone in the business. 

The group that started its career as support for none other than Diana Ross forged a superlative career to become one of the all time girl-group-greats.  In fact, we would say THE Girl group of all time.  And they are still going strong to date, sadly without Valerie, who died in 2001. We in the UK were privileged to have the presence of Shirley Jones at London's Jazz Cafe in 2008, and are pleased to report that she is sounding as wonderful as ever.

Many of you will be familiar with The Jones Girls music, in particular "Nights Over Egypt" and "This Feeling's Killing Me".  These have become popular soul classics with widespread appeal, appearing in recent years on many soul collection CDs. Any true soul connoisseur will have a selection of the Jones Girls definitive LPs in their record collections - or probably all of them - a majority of which are now available on CD (see our recommended section to the right). 

During the 80s, The Jones Girls created a considerable following, and were a central part of the wonderful StreetSounds era of music.  In fact, two of their tracks appeared on the StreetSounds collections, the amazing "Keep It Comin'", which is frequently appears in lists of soul fans all time favourite favourites, and the equally brilliant "Knockin'"; plus they featured on their own edition of StreetSounds, The Artists.

Beyond their incredible voices, the Girls worked with the best in the business. The "Keep It Comin'" track was produced by the amazing Keni Burke, the man behind so much good music as both a solo artist and producer; Robert Wright and Fonzi Thornton, who were responsible for "Knockin" and the dance floor classic "2 Win U Back"; Dexter Wansel ("Nights Over Egypt" and the amazing "She Knew About Me" from Shirley's solo album); and soul royalty Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, who produced too many great soul artists to mention.

We mentioned at the top of this review that the Jones Girls were technically excellent.  To prove out point, take a listen to the "She Knew About Me Track", a small clip of which is available here.  Any singer developing her craft could learn much from the voice control and sensitivity that Shirley Jones demonstrates here, although very few will have the raw, natural talent of this amazing trio.

In fact, talent such as this comes along so rarely. These days, we have a handful of female singers who are regarded as the "best in the business".  The likes of Beyonce, Celine Dion and Amy Winehouse are credited as being the leading female singers around.  We are not here to criticize these artists by any means:  listening pleasure, in our view, has nothing to do with winning awards, or labelling one singer as better than another.  But what is clear is that an artist such as Shirley Jones, who has worked with the best and served up some of the finest vocals ever heard, deserves her place alongside the very greatest of all time.  Shirley, we and your many many adoring fans, thank you for all you have done. 

We at Radiocafe know that there is a vast following of Jones Girls fans out there, particularly in the UK where you, the Great British public, really know your soul music.  We only hope that a new generation of fans will discover the magic of the Jones GIrls, and fall under their spell in the same way as many of us did back in the 70s and 80s when we heard their music for the first time.

The best news of all is that their music is more affordable than ever, with a majority of the original albums now available on excellent two-on-one CDs at bargain prices.  If you like soul music, we urge you, if you have not done already, to add some of these to your collection, as we know you will not be disappointed.