Clive Hunt Says He Named J.C. Lodge, Produced ‘Someone Loves You, Honey’ Cover

Legendary music producer Clive Hunt has said that he not only gave J.C. Lodge her moniker, but that he masterminded her 1980 cover version of American singer Charlie Pride’s Someone Loves You, Honey, the song which resulted in the undoing of Jamaican music producer Joe Gibbs.

The former Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldier, who is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and arranger, said he was introduced to JC Lodge by Alla, the keyboard player for Chalice, who also served in the military with him as a teenager.

“I always tell people, is me give JC Lodge name JC Lodge, because her name is June Carol Lodge and Alla took her to me because they were neighbours in New Kingston… Alla tell mi seh shi write and shi waan sing.  She come to the studio to mi 100 time – a lot a time…,” Hunt said in an interview with I Never Knew TV.

Hunt said on one fateful day, he invited June to Joe Gibbs’ studio which he had booked to assist Reggae singer Tyrone Taylor to produce his Cottage in Negril album so that he could record a song for her.  On that day, he said, he had some of Jamaica’s finest musicians at his disposal including Willie Lindo, Lloyd Parkes and others, who had been booked.

He said after recording Tyrone Taylor’s entire album that day, in the evening at about 6:00pm, when the musicians were packing up to leave, he realized he had forgotten about June.  He said he called back Willie and the others and told them to stay, sent to Tastee to buy dinner as the musicians complained of being tired and hungry.

However, Hunt, who started studying music at age 12, whilst a Stony Hill Juvenile School in St Andrew, said he told June he did not like her tunes on her cassette, and that she sang too softly.

“But mi had to record a chune wid her, because mi promise her an mi feel bad and mi nuh waan let Alla and her and Errol (her husband) down,” Hunt said.

He said that Errol Thompson, the famed engineer who worked with Joe Gibbs, had a Charlie Pride album on which he started looking for tracks for June to cover.

“Mi seh ‘June, mi naw no time fi listen yuh record dem, but mi a guh record a chune wid yuh today’.  Mi seh ‘mi a guh play a chune an mi want yuh learn it, and get di keys suh wi can just record di song and den yuh practice it and wi record yuh another time’.

“When wi get to did second song, mi hear Someone loves you honey’ and mi seh ‘aye, learn dah chune yah June.  Wi a guh eat and come back.”

He said that after he and the musicians had eaten, they returned inside where they spent the rest of the evening recording one of the most-loved cover versions in Reggae history, and he upon completion, despite her protestations, gave the singer the moniker JC Lodge.

“No one ever get paid for that enuh because they were working for me and they never did it for nothing, but we were working on Joe Gibbs studio time and on Joe Gibbs ting,” he explained.

“When wi done record the song – I was going back overseas – I was living in Miami but mi fly come dung fi session regular, few times a week – so mi just teck up di two inch tape box, because each song yuh put the title and yuh write di artiste name.  And mi seh: ‘June weh yuh name?’ an shi seh: ‘June Lodge’ and mi seh: ‘June Lodge, no sah mi nuh like dat.’”

“An shi seh: ‘Clive weh yuh mean?’”

“An mi seh: ‘Dat nuh soun like nuh artiste name, June’,” he added.

He said that as the pondering continued he came up with an idea.

“An mi seh: ‘which odda name yuh have?’ An shi seh ‘Carol’.  Mi seh: ‘hear what – yuh name J.C. Lodge’, and mi write it big a di back.  An mi seh: ‘from now on you will be called JC Lodge’.  And shi seh ‘no’”.

“And mi seh: ‘listen, you either name JC Lodge, or wi wipe dis off right now’, and shi seh, ‘okay’.  Das how J.C. Lodge get di name J.C. Lodge on a box.   She would be June Lodge if it was Alla or her husband or anybody recording her.  An mi woulda waan hear she dispute it, or anybody,” Hunt said.

However, in an interview with The Entertainment Podcast in May this year, J.C. Lodge had told host Muscle that she chose the moniker herself, after Joe Gibbs, close to release date, called her in and asked her what name she would like to sing under.

“I said to him, ‘I don’t like the name June that I was given, so I definitely don’t want to use that.  I want my first name June… and he said OK,” she had said.

According to Hunt’s version, he left for the United States very satisfied with how June had delivered the Charlie Pride song, even though adjustments had to be made by the engineer.

“Before I leave she start to do the demo voice and her voice was so quiet the engineer have to open the microphone – the BD Level, and when Errol Thompson turn up di microphone suh much, wi coulda hear all car a drive a road – and him seh ‘Clive how shi sing quiet suh’”,” he said.

Anyway, shi did the little demo and shi sound nice to me.  Next ting mi know, di song hit.  Caw Willie Lindo finish it fi Gibbo (Joe Gibbs).  Di song become a massive hit, so big till not even June realise how big it became,” he added.

As for Joe Gibbs, Hunt said he was present when the producer’s undoing came in the United States, for claiming to be the author of the lyrics to Someone Loves You, Honey.

“Till I was in Miami at Joe Gibbs place when di sherriff – black Sheriff come and call him outside and say: ‘yo man, I am ashamed of you’.  Because they had sued him over the song because what him always do – and what a lot a dem used to do, and some a dem still do it, if me produce a song and walk weh, a man put him name on it ‘written by him’.    It marked produced by Joe Gibbs, written by Joe Gibbs, when he wasn’t even in the place,” Hunt relayed.

“And I was able to see the sheriff come and lock dung di whole building…And I end up working producing Charlie Pride and him son a few years later,” he added.

He said that Charlie came to Jamaica and told the story of the true origins of the lyrics in St Ann, at what is now Irie FM.

“He said it wasn’t his song either.  It was by a man in Canada who gave it to him,” Hunt said.

Hunt was recruited by the JDF at age 17, which he said in a 2017 interview, wanted to have him set a record as “the youngest bandmaster in the British Empire ever”.

The JDF sent him to the Royal Military School of Music in England for training where he excelled as the top overseas student and ended up in the top two scholars overall. He walked out of the JDF not long after, claiming, among other things that he was a “Rastaman pickney and I couldn’t work with the system”.

Hunt was afterwards recruited by Byron Lee for this Dragonaires band.  He became a much sought-after musician as he was skilled in playing the trumpet, bass guitar, flute, horn, keyboards and the saxophone.

He has worked on albums by The Abyssinians, Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus, Toots and The Maytals, Peter Tosh and Grace Jones.

In more recent times, he has produced, arranged and composed hits for Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Sister Carol, Marcia Griffiths, Burning Spear, Dean Frazer, Gregory Isaacs, Leroy Smart, Chronixx, Etana and Nadine Sutherland.

On the Dancehall side, he has worked with Cutty Ranks, Vybz Kartel, Kiprich, Macka Diamond, Aidonia and Sizzla Kalonji.