JACK LEE
Jack Lee (Born March 25, 1952) is an American songwriter and musician best known for composing the song, “Hanging on the Telephone”, which was covered by the New Wave band Blondie. (More from Wikipedia)
In 1975, a band called the Nerves was formed as a true power trio: Jack Lee, Peter Case and Paul Collins were talented musicians as well as dynamite songwriters. The Nerves broke up due to the usual musical differences – not surprising considering that each member of the band was fighting to get their songs recorded. Jack Lee might have been the best songwriter of the three, but he retreated from the music scene after releasing just one solo album.
(April 2010)
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Basically dropping everything and pushing a band to the top of the heap on the UARA/UARB stack has happened only one other time among these posts, and it was quite awhile ago: the UARB for April 2010, the Breakaways. I had ordered a power-pop package from Bomp!: a retrospective album of, a brand-new CD of a killer live show by the Plimsouls, and then a CD by the Breakaways. After Jack Lee left the Nerves, the other two members of the band, Paul Collins and Peter Case started playing with a variety of other musicians. They used the name the Breakaways, but it arguably never was really a band: These guys just wanted to keep making music together.
Since that time, I have purchased several albums by Paul Collins and one by Peter Case, and they never disappoint. Jack Lee retired from the music scene after he only made one album; I haven’t gotten it yet, but it is definitely on my want list. I keep hoping to hear about a reunion of the Nerves though; that would be worth getting on a plane to see!
(December 2012)
