JUSTE IN TIME

Sorting through a load of vinyl left by my uncle, who died recently, and checking them with your Rare Record Price Guide, I came across a single which you rate at £18, but it’s by someone I’ve never heard of, Samantha Juste. It’s No One Needs My Love/If Trees Could Talk, on the Go label. Why is it worth £18?

When Top Of The Pops was launched in 1964 it was decked out to look like a groovy club or coffee bar, presided over by a DJ (Jimmy Savile, Pete Murray, David Jacobs or Alan Freeman). The acts mimed to discs spun by a ‘disc girl’, a role filled for three years by Samantha Juste, an aspiring model and designer. She became an instant celebrity in the teenage mags of the day and performed this record on the show in 1966. It flopped, but by then she had caught the eye of Micky Dolenz of the Monkees who whisked her off to California for a somewhat stormy marriage. Today she runs a jewellery boutique there with her daughter Ami. It has to be said that she was no Dusty Springfield, but she had an appealing voice and these tracks can be heard, along with a lot of other under-appreciated British girls, on RPM’s Dream Babes Vol 3 CD. – Ed.

by John Baker
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