Judy Stone - I'll Step Down (1962) @ 320

Judith Anne Stone

Judy Stone, AM (born 1 January 1942, Granville, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian pop and country music singer.

During the early 1960s, she became a regular on television pop show Bandstand, alongside the likes of Col Joye, Bryan Davies, Lucky Starr, Noeleen Batley, Patsy Ann Noble, The Allen Brothers, The Delltones, The De Kroo Brothers, Laurel Lea, Jimmy Hannan and Sandy Scott. Stone's duets with Col Joye were a popular feature of the show. She began touring with Joye and the Joyboys, and then signed a deal with Festival Records.

Stone's first two singles for Festival, `You're Driving Me Crazy'/`It Takes a Lot To Make Me Cry' (June 1961) and `Danger! Heartbreak Ahead'/`You're Driving Me Mad' (August), were minor hits. Her third single, `I'll Step Down'/ `Mommy and Daddy Were Twistin'' (February 1962), took her into the Sydney Top 10 for the first time when it peaked at #5 during March. Stone also issued her debut album for Festival, I'll Step Down, in 1962. `Finders Keepers'/`I'm Confessing that I Love You' (June), `I Wanna Love You'/`Where are You?' (December) and `It Takes a Lot to Make Me Cry'/`I Cried' (July 1963) made minor impressions on the Sydney chart. It was her seventh single, however, that became Stone's most popular release of the 1960s. The heart-wrenching ballad `4,003,221 Tears from Now'/`Hello Faithless' (April 1964) peaked at #8 in Sydney and #7 in Melbourne. The `I Cried' EP (June 1964), plus the singles `Break My Heartache'/`Lonely People Do Foolish Things' (September), `Hard to Say Goodnight'/`Too Much' (December) and `In My Neighbourhood'/`This is My Prayer' (October 1965) were not so successful.

By that stage, Stone had teamed up with Col Joye on a number of recordings, including the EPs `The I's Have It' and `Clap Your Hands', and albums Col and Judy and The Best of Col and Judy, which contained cutesy material like `Young And Healthy', `Angry' and `Side by Side'. In early 1965 she embarked on a two-month Japanese tour with Joye and the Joyboys. A year later, she married Leo De Kroo of The De Kroo Brothers. In September 1966, Stone scored her third Sydney Top 10 hit when a cover of Sandy Posey's `Born a Woman'/ `I Need You' (her first release for Joye's ATA label) peaked at #3. Stone issued five more singles on ATA, `Don't Touch Me'/`So Softly' (February 1967), `And the Trouble with Me is You'/`Lost Without Love' (May), `I Might as Well Get Used to It'/`Love will Always Find a Way' (March 1968) and Janis Ian's `Society's Child'/`I'm Not Your Woman' (March 1969), before moving to the M7 label.

Throughout the late 1960s/early 1970s, Stone consolidated on her early pop successes with regular appearances on the club and country music circuits. Her first single for M7, `Day by Day' (from Godspell)/`Enough of a Woman' (November 1971) was overshadowed by Colleen Hewett's hit rendition, although it did peak at #6 in Sydney. Stone issued her third solo album, Pure Stone, in May 1972 on the Frog label. The albums Born to Love (1972), The Magic of Judy Stone (1973) and the double compilation Judy Stone's Greatest Hits (1974) followed. In 1974, Stone entered her most successful phase since the mid-1960s when her English-language version of `Mare Mare Mare'/`(I Am) Only a Woman' (January 1974) and `Would You Lay with Me in a Field of Stone?'/`Forgive Me for Saying' (June) charted in the national Top 20 (#12 and #2 respectively). With `Would You Lay with Me in a Field of Stone?' in the Australian Top 10, Stone represented Australia at Expo '74 in Spokane, USA. Stone's first album for the M7 label was In a Field of Stone.

The 1975 singles `Where are the Clowns?'/ `Traveller' and `We Two will Love'/`I Believe in Music' were not successful. Stone returned to the national chart with her version of the country standard `Silver Wings And Golden Rings'/`We Need You' (her first release for Polydor), which reached #21 in February. `Silver Wings and Golden Rings' had been lifted from Stone's album A Part of Me, which also produced the single ABBA's `Hasta Manana'/`Runaway' (#14 in May). In 1977, Stone travelled to the UK where she had signed with recording and management company Power Exchange (which also handled Kamahl's affairs). Stone's second album for Polydor, What are You Doing Tonight? produced the single `What are You Doing Tonight?'/`Don't Cry Tears for Me' (1978). Stone issued one final single for Polydor in April 1980, `Years'/`Magic in Your Mind'.

Judy Stone - I'll Step Down  (1962)

 01. Judy Stone - It's The Talk Of The Town 

 02. Judy Stone - Once In A While 

 03. Judy Stone - I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You) 

 04. Judy Stone - Mean To Me 

 05. Judy Stone - I Only Have Eyes For You 

 06. Judy Stone - I Cried For You 

 07. Judy Stone - I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) 

 08. Judy Stone - I'll Step Down 

 09. Judy Stone - It Had To Be You 

 10. Judy Stone - You'll Never Know 

 11. Judy Stone - The One I Love Belongs To Someone Else 

 12. Judy Stone - Where Are You?

***