The Jones Girls, Nights Over Egypt | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 37^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Nights Over Egypt” by The Jones Girls.

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 37^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “Nights Over Egypt”, performed by 🎙 The Jones Girls. 

“There’s a sky in the east / Over pyramids at Giza / There once lived a girl / She ruled the world,” 🎙 The Jones Girls assert on the R&B classic, 🎵 “Nights Over Egypt”.  They add, in the first verse, “Then down the Nile / He came with a smile / He was the king / She was the queen / Under the moonlight.” Ah! Egypt, love, and a four-decade-old R&B song. What more could you ask for? “Nights Over Egypt” appears as the third track on the trio’s (🎙 Brenda, Shirley, and Valorie Jones) 1981 album, 💿 Get as Much Love as You Can.  While “Nights Over Egypt” charted on R&B songs chart, it failed to make the cut on the Billboard Hot 100 – bummer!  Nonetheless, this record has been a popular sampling source. Why? It is the electrifying production, courtesy of talented musician, 🎛 Dexter Wansel.  Philadelphia soul remains alive and well, with the picturesque keys, strings, a robust bass line – it’s the whole shebang. Throw in an Egyptian sound, and you can’t beat this gem!

Lyrically, The Jones Girls paint a picture of the country, and African, in all its glory.  The second verse in particular captures Africa superbly: “Saharan façade / Is just a mirage / Oasis in the sand.” Beyond the verses, the pre-chorus emphasizes an almost unbelievable portrait of those “Nights over Egypt” that the chorus touts.  Listening to 🎵 “Nights Over Egypt” more than 40 years after it arrived, it is shocking this surefire, rhythmic vibe didn’t perform better well on the pop charts. This is a classic that remains a fresh as it did the year it first arrived.  The Jones Girls struck gold with this one – I don’t care what the Billboard Hot 100 says!

🎙 The Jones Girls • 💿 Get As Much Love as You Can • 🏷 Sony Music Entertainment • 🗓 1981

The Jones Girls, “Nights Over Egypt”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 37 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Sony Music Entertainment; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]