Remember Rupert Holmes, the guy who did “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)?” Well, he’s the brain trust behind today’s classic song of the day, a little-remembered tune titled “Jennifer Tomkins.” Credited to a non-existent studio group called the Street People, this single hit the Billboard charts in January of 1970 and peaked at #36.
Rupert Holmes wrote “Jennifer Tomkins” along with Paul Vance and Gerard Florio, and initially intended the song for another studio group called the Cuff Links, with Ron Dante (of the Archies) singing lead. When Dante was forced to drop out of the project, however, Holmes just recorded it on his own and invented a made-up group (The Street People) to be the cover.
“Jennifer Tomkins” is a piece of sunshine pop (or is it bubblegum?) that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in the late ’60s. It’s notable for its large number of modulations—five of them over its short 1:47 running time. For you non-musicians, a modulation is when a song changes key—essentially gets a little higher or lower than where it started. Most pop songs, if they modulate, go up, typically a half or whole step; that helps to give a little oomph to the tune, typically towards the end of the song. In the case of “Jennifer Tomkins,” all the modulations are upward—a half-step first, then a whole step, then three more half-steps. That raises the key three whole steps, which is a lot. It works, however.
Despite the song being so short, it tells a pretty complete story about the life of a girl named Jennifer Tomkins. In their entirety, the lyrics go like this:
Jennifer Tomkins was born on a Sunday
Her daddy got drunk, and left home on a Monday
Her mama died young when Jenny was seven
And Jennifer Tomkins went to work at eleven.
Oh, I swear, just ain’t fair
Trouble, trouble everywhere
Oh, Lord come on down
Got to spread some love around.
Jenny she grew up to be quite a lady
And as she got older, life still was shady
She met a loved one, just like her mother
He left her one day and ran off with another.
And that (with a few repeats of the chorus) is that.
