Avons

The Avons were one of the best Nashville girl groups largely due to the excellent songs from John Wilkins of Ronny and the Daytonas.

Members:
Paula Hester
Beverly Bard
Fran Bard

Located on 17th Avenue, North and Jo Johnston, Pearl High School  in Nashville, Tennessee was a rich source of d musical talent. In the early 1960s the Bard sisters Francesca and Beverly formed The Avons, along with classmate Paula Hester. The Avons first taste of the studio was an initial one-off hire for budget label Hit, providing unaccredited backing vocals to Peggy Gaines’ cover of The Marvelettes’ "Playboy" .

By the time The Avons started recording, RCA Victor had already firmly established itself in Nashville with offices and studios to facilitate country and pop releases. It may have been a little behind its major competitor Atlantic in tapping R&B but was aware enough of the developing phenomenon to set up its own race music label, Groove. The RCA subsidiary was associated with more than one hundred releases; perhaps most notable as a vehicle at one point for Mickey and Sylvia’s mid-1950s million seller "Love Is Strange".  The Avons’ first scheduled session for Groove was in July 1963. By that time, Fran had graduated from school, although Beverly was still a student at Pearl High. "Push a Little Harder"/"Oh Gee Baby" was released the following month. The single failed to break the Billboard charts.

Late that summer The Impressions had just recorded "It’s All Right" on ABC Paramount. Their Nashville promotion man Isaac Washington began  organizing a one month tour of the south for them to promote the record, putting together a supporting artist package. The Avons were selected for this.

The Avons’ second outing "Words Written On Water" / "Rolling Stone"  came in March 1964, and a third "Tonight Kiss Your Baby Goodbye" / "Whatever Happened To Our Love a couple of months later. "Rolling Stone" would represent the first professional interaction between the group and band leader, arranger and Excello staff writer Bob Holmes.

When WLAC gave Bob Holmes the role as musical director for Night Train in 1964, this also put him in the position to select artists for the TV show. A number of local and national acts were utilized, though local acts were reserved for backing vocals or as support, paid at $25 for three songs. Initially Hester and the Bard sisters were a little put out by their secondary status, until they realized that they were among the only ones being paid for the work. The Avons appeared on a number of episodes, and did still perform some of their original songs plus a few covers: "Everybody Loves A Lover", "Back In My Arms Again", "Talk To Me", "Be My Baby", "You Send Me" and "Heatwave.

The television  TV appearances did little to boost sales of their later Groove efforts. From 1964 the girls would return to Hit, moonlighting as Jenny and the Jewels. Releases on Hit appeared regularly between 1964 and 1967. Covers of The Supremes’ "Baby Love"  and "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart"  came in 1966, and a final release "In And Out Of Love"  a year later. The Avons were eventually dropped by RCA after "Tonight Kiss Your Baby Goodbye".

In 1966 they moved to Sound Stage 7. Whilst most Sound Stage 7 material was produced via John Richbourg’s JR Enterprises, a few artists appeared independently via connections with parent label Monument and owner Fred Foster. John ‘Bucky’ Wilkin composed The Avons’ "Be Good To Your Baby" ) along with fellow Daytona member Bobby Russell. As "Bucky and Bobby" they also produced the flipside, a melodic beat ballad "Just As Long As I Live" (composed by Bob Holmes). This 45 was released in May 1966. Bucky’s entry into the music business occurred via his group Ronny and the Daytonas, and the professional relationship between his song-writing mother Marijohn Wilkin and musician / arranger Bill Justis, with their Buckhorn Music publishing company. The Daytonas’ first surf / hot rod record "G.T.O" for Mala had become a national top ten hit a couple of years before Bucky became connected with The Avon’s Sound Stage 7 45.

Producer, arranger, and writer Bob Holmes composed "Just As Long As I Live" whilst still working as staff at Excello, and was likely the connection to The Avons’ next move to that label. By the mid-1960s Excello was moving away from its signature raw R&B sound. Holmes wanted to capture elements of the sophisticated soul sound of the major cities of the north. An earlier version by The Avons of Peggy Gaines’ "When the Boy That You Love" (both previously unissued) is arguably from this period - if not intended for Excello then possibly for Bob Holmes’ Southern Artists label or leasing to a third party label whilst Holmes was still producing for Excello and related labels.

In 1967 "Talk To Me" / "Got To Get Used To You" was released. Then in 1968, Ted Jarrett and fellow writer-producer-arranger Bob Holmes created their own Ref-O-Ree label. The pair composed, produced and arranged The Avons’ "Tell Me Baby (Who Would I Be)" and used it as the initial release for the label The song was promoted locally but made no impact on the Billboard charts.

The group were still working with John "Bucky" Wilkin, leader of Ronny and the Daytonas. His co-writer Bobby Russell (also of the Daytonas) had contacts with Monument Records and got them a deal with their subsidiary Sound Stage 7......resulting with the single "Be Good To Your Baby" in 1966. The Sound Stage 7 single didn't work as well as expected so Bob Holmes got the group a contract with Excello Records where he worked as a staff producer. Excello put the group on their subsidiary A-Bet and produced the single "Talk To Me" in 1967. For the next single the group was promoted to the main Excello Label and had their next single issued in 1968. "He's My Hero" was co-written by Bob Holmes and former Ikette Joshie Armstead. This was the last work they did with Excello.

In 1968 The Avons and veteran producer Ted Jarrett were picked to launch the newly formed Ref-O-Ree label. "Tell Me Baby (Who Would I Be) their 1st and last single with the label and was the group's last known work. In the UK, the single was released as by The Novas, so as not to confuse with the British group. The Avons each recorded for the Ref-O-Ree label of Nashville. Both acts also recorded cover versions of charted records for the local budget Hit label. Rumored The Avons used the monicker Jenny & The Jewels.

The Ref-O-Ree 45 was to be the Avons’ final release. Little is known regarding the singing careers of Fran, Beverly or Paula beyond this point. Fran appears to have settled to bring up a family. She passed away in late 1991 survived by her two sons. Beverly was last reported as still performing in Troy, Michigan. The whereabouts of Paula Hester is also unknown.