Ailantha
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

The Mysterious Faith Tones

6/16/2015

41 Comments

 
   



   
   
    So last Thursday night Theresa and I were checking out the collection of vintage record albums on the wall of the fM restaurant lobby (see Friday's post),

Picture
...when this one stopped us in our tracks.
Picture
         Our initial what the heck?! reaction quickly evolved into a discussion over whether this supposed album cover from - when?  The 50's?  The 60's? - was real or a photo shop creation; were The Faith Tones an actual group?  If so did they represent satire or sincerity?  Were they women?  Or guys in leisure suits and bouffant 'do's?
    Anyway, when we got home Theresa googled "The Faith Tones" and what we learned was that this this 60's - or possibly pseudo-60's  - trio that I'd never heard of is in fact a great internet mystery with a cult following.  
    There are numerous sites debating the existence of "The Faith Tones" and their album.  There are those who swear that the album, supposedly released in 1964, exists; that they, or their father, or their cousin's friend's uncle in fact own, or used to own a copy.  There are others who claim  that  they've scoured the internet  looking for a copy of "Jesus Use Me" and that they've never found any evidence of its existence.
    Some hold that the album is just a fabricated meme image, an internet urban legend .
    Not that you can't find a recording of the title song.
    A recording of the of the song "Jesus Use Me",  an Old Timey piano gospel tune sung in close three-part women's harmony, was posted with a photo of the album cover on Youtube in 2013.  You  can check it out at: 
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciSEvedXvs
     If you listen to the recording it sounds authentic enough, and the person who posted that also posted two other songs from the album, "It's Different Now" and "God Bless America."

   But then after snooping around a bit I found this:
Picture
    The above photo accompanied a supposedly rare recording by a supposedly 60's Canadian Christian girl rock group.  That recording is at: 
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMjlz7aCVzE
    So does this prove that the Faith Tones are a fake?  Or that they were just moonlighting?
    Anyway, there are enough believers out there that "Jesus Use Me" has a place - sometimes first - on several "Worst Album Cover Ever" sites,  and there are numerous parodies of the cover kicking around the 'net:

Picture
Picture
Picture
  There's also a hilarious youtube video called "Faith Tones Exposed"  that reveals the "true identity" of The Faith Tones.  This one you should check out:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0ewF1jtAJs     
     I did come across one blog that posted a very believable, detail-filled and rather touching biography of the group members that was picked up by Wikipedia...until the author admitted that the story was fiction.   
    Suspiciously, the person who posted the fake biography appears to be the same one who posted the Faith Tones recordings on Youtube.  So go figure.
    In any case, here are the conclusions I've come to about the Faith Tones:
    1. Be it real or fake, there are three individuals somewhere out there, though at this time we know not who for sure, who posed for that album cover, and
    2. If The Faith Tones really were a female trio that produced an album in 1964 that is now enjoying a dubious renaissance, you'd think they'd step forward and try to cash in on the phenomenon.  Or step forward and tell everyone to knock it the heck off.

    Anyway, next time I go to the fM I'm definitely going to ask if anybody there knows where this came from.
Picture
41 Comments
Romaine
6/16/2015 05:18:00 am

Hum - the Faith Tone to the right with the glasses looks quite a bit like one of our relatives going incognito ....

Reply
Patti
6/16/2015 12:02:43 pm

OMG, you're right!

Reply
Marianne
6/19/2015 12:33:25 am

Once again proving that just because it's on the internet it isn't necessarily true.

Reply
Woodrow Dunn
1/18/2022 12:12:51 pm

This prove that the Satan Elementary Club does not stand a chance!

Reply
Tim
1/24/2016 06:33:28 pm

What tv show were these guys from. I know I saw them on some show.

Reply
Patti
1/24/2016 06:39:03 pm

If you can remember, Tim, let us know!

Reply
Tim
1/24/2016 06:44:00 pm

Will do

Woodrow Dunn
1/18/2022 12:13:40 pm

They were on The Lawrence Welk Show!

Reply
Patti
1/25/2016 06:52:11 am

Thanks, Tim!

Reply
Tim
1/26/2016 11:47:23 am

Okay one on the left could he be Joshua Malina who plays President Siebert on Big Bang. Though it wouldn't be a old show than.

Reply
Timothy Riggins
11/30/2022 10:45:01 am

Did you ever find out anything more about them?

Reply
Jon link
2/15/2016 11:25:21 am

I was the one who wrote the heart-warming fictional story and also posted the tracks on YouTube. I actually got a copy of the album on ebay and I have been in touch with one of the members of the faith tones. I wrote the fictional story simply because there was so much outrageous stuff out there and I wrote it as a creative writing exercise to see what would happen. But yes, the Faith Tones are real and I know of their whereabouts. (The one in the glasses passed away in 1989). Is there anything I can do to prove they are real?

Reply
mark
6/10/2016 04:56:50 pm

Of course, there would be actual proof that would convince people. You have none, except your now claiming to be the author of this hoax. I doubt you're that creative - perhaps trying to take credit for someone else's imagination. My opinion, regarding the album cover only, is that two or even all three are derived from photographs of the same (male) person. And retouching of photographs and photo negatives has existed since very early photos.. some photograph chemistries were easier than others to alter. Since you claim to know them, just produce their actual names, current cities (graveyard, if applicable), and some non-creative facts. By the way, your writing does qualify as "outrageous stuff" but you're more phoney than all of that.

Reply
Alex
5/5/2018 07:07:01 am

Jon, you were also on SRC ($"** Record Covers) at one point (original incarnation). I remember you posting you found it and initially you posted the videos. Just post a picture of the album itself and end the debate.

And congratulations on having a copy of it still.

Reply
Jon link
4/10/2019 09:38:20 am

I have a photo of me holding the album. Where should I post it?

tom
5/6/2020 11:23:46 am

passed away?

Do you mean died, or went to WalMart?

Reply
Brian Phefley
5/10/2020 06:58:46 pm

Girl 1. Unable to handle the fame that came with the group's success, converted to Catholicism is is now Sister Rosetta Stone, a novice Nun with the Sisters of Perpetual Motion.
Girl 2. After artistic differences with the rest of the band, left to form her own short-lived group, The Faith Tones & I.
Girl 3. Following a crisis of faith, was under the seduction of a blashphemer who led her into the seedy world of atheism. She is presently fronting a Black Sabbath tribute band and rumoured to be wallowing in athiest debauchery.

Reply
Dan Perry
6/4/2020 08:58:56 am

I have a feeling this album was produced by Ontario Bible College, Ontario Canada. They had a big music program with lots of touring music groups. I'm pretty sure that was where I first became aware of it.

Reply
Fisher
1/16/2021 12:27:07 am

Didn't you say she died at 29yo? That would have made her 5/6 in 1964. Stop gaslightin us.

Reply
Clem
11/29/2022 01:48:16 am

"(The one in the glasses passed away in 1989). Is there anything I can do to prove they are real?"

Well obviously: dig her up and post a photo. Oh wait - they already did that for the album cover, right?

Reply
Andy
3/15/2017 01:01:20 pm

Those three faces are definitely not the same person. I did briefly entertain the notion that the one on the right was a young Steven Fry, but the nose isn't quite right.

Reply
David Mackey
1/19/2022 11:12:32 am

That was before he got punched.

Reply
Tim
4/29/2017 08:51:09 pm

A friend sent me an image of this album cover a few years ago. My immediate reaction was, "This looks like the Limeliters in drag". From left to right: Alex, Glen, and Lou. Google The Limeliters and see what I mean.

Reply
Patti
4/30/2017 07:56:37 am

Hmmm...Interesting!

Reply
KublaiSean
8/28/2017 09:28:39 pm

Wait, you actually thought it even remotely possible the "gal tones" image was the original? That's canned meme font that they used on it ol

Reply
marci kulbak
2/7/2018 01:56:45 pm

http://jbw53191.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-faith-tones.html

Reply
Craig Ericson
12/9/2018 09:50:01 pm

That is the fake article that Jon wrote. The recordings were of some of his friends in the mid 2000's. The album in the photos was a clever fake. Who knows where the news paper photo came from. None of the information was real. It was a for a creative writing class.

Reply
Peter Annear
5/5/2018 01:37:51 am

Is the one in the middle a very young Alison Krauss?

Reply
Jim
5/19/2018 03:40:42 am

Would fM let you look at the LP out of its frame?

Reply
Patti
12/10/2018 09:05:20 am

Well, dang, Jim, fM is no longer there! The place closed down over a year ago so of course who knows what became of the album in the frame? Sorry! Otherwise I think I might just have gone back and asked to have a look at the album!

Reply
Leon T
10/8/2018 07:54:27 pm

This must be the lost Gospel Shaggs album.

Reply
Kelli
6/15/2019 01:18:39 am

You people are absolutely horrible. The lady on the right was my Aunt and she was a wonderful woman. She had a very beautiful voice. She passed away 8 years ago of bone cancer.

Reply
Noel
1/19/2020 05:37:46 am

Kelli please tell us more about the group and her life. Once you put the true human story together for us I am sure we will all drop the sarcasm

Reply
Del F
2/23/2020 03:53:19 pm

In in depth research into the Faith Tones exists here:

https://jbw53191.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-faith-tones.html

Reply
Paul Evans
9/9/2020 01:48:27 pm

If you look up the record label 'Angelus recordings' you can see it's genuine and has a list of records, including this one, that they released. They are mostly Christian records by people I've never heard of. They have records by schools too. I randomly checked out some of the other names and records and they are genuine. Loads of labels like this existed and used to print small runs of records. I think the Faith Tones are real.

Reply
Dan Perry
1/16/2021 01:10:32 pm

It is real, and these ladies were held up as shining examples of good Christian womanhood. Heck, when I attended a Bible College way back when that album was pretty popular, and many of the ladies at the college resembled the Faith Tones. I didn't date much.
The collage had a big music program and recorded lots of Christian music and released it on small distribution labels. At the time I was under the impression it was one of our home grown products.

Reply
Lettie T
12/11/2021 08:38:41 pm

We were real. That’s me on the left. But I will not, repeat not, discuss this any further. I am so very very tired of y’all using our LP as some weird way to criticize our Lord Jesus. The worlds has certainly changed a lot since we recorded those songs, Lord knows.

Reply
Gary
1/20/2022 02:09:13 am

It's real.

https://www.discogs.com/release/5662662-The-Faith-Tones-Jesus-Use-Me

None of these commenters making claims are, though.

Reply
Andy d
2/13/2022 08:39:26 am

From your article at the end it states:
(Please note: The preceding article was an exercise in fictional creative writing.)

Reply
Paok
3/27/2022 03:40:55 pm

Bolches yarboclos

Reply
Jonathan
12/13/2022 11:58:59 am

Check discogs.com.
It exists and has been sold on there.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    "Tropical Depression" 
    by Patti Liszkay
    ​Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1685131832

    Picture
    "Hail Mary"
    by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888

    Picture
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
     by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
    or from
    The Book Loft
    of German Village,
    Columbus, Ohio
    Picture
    Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
    Picture

    Archives

    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

    I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
    hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers.

    Categories

    All


























































































Proudly powered by Weebly