“Allan Jones”: Jack Jones Loved His Old Man so Much, that He Had “My Kind of Town” Re-Written in His Honor (Recording)

Irene Hervey and Allan Jones, in 1941


By N.S.

Two words are the whole point of this recording: “Allan Jones.”

Allan Jones was a popular singer, whose signature song was “Donkey Serenade,” and who was a star of early movie musicals, most notably, Show Boat (1936).

Well, Allan Jones (1907-1992) and his wife, actress Irene Hervey (1909-1998), had a son whom they named Jack (1938-), who became a very big deal, starting in 1963, with Bacharach & David’s “Wives & Lovers.” As a tribute to his then still-living father, and probably because he was playing in the Second City, the son had someone re-write Sammy Cahn’s lyrics to the song Cahn (1913-1993) and Jimmy Van Heusen (1913-1990) had written for Sinatra (1915-1998) and the Rat Pack’s 1962 musical picture, set in the Windy City, about Runyonesque, 1920s gangsters, Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964).

“It sounds like corn,
But I was born … in Hollywood,
And Hollywood sure means a lot to me.

“While it’s been praised,
I’m amazed by Hollywood,
But there is somewhere
I would rather be….

[Wistfully]

“My kind of town, was Hollywood,
My kind of town, was Hollywood,
It’s yesterday’s unknowns,
Agents’ phones,
Allan Jones….”

Jack Jones, My Kind of Town, 1965