Jewel Akens obit

‘Birds and the Bees’ Singer Jewel Akens Dies

Pop singer Jewel Akens, whose lone big hit came with "The Birds and the Bees" in 1965, died Friday at age 79. 

He was not on the list.

Jewel Akens, a pop singer who had a 1960s hit with “The Birds and the Bees,” has died in Southern California at age 79.

His wife, Eddie Mae Akens, tells the Los Angeles Times that Akens died Friday from back surgery complications at an Inglewood hospital.

Akens was in a group called the Turnarounds when they were offered a song that talked about “the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the moon up above – and a thing called love.”

Other members disliked it, so Akens recorded it solo. The song was No. 3 on Billboard’s Top 100 chart in 1965 and was later covered by Dean Martin and others.

Akens never duplicated its success but performed into his 70s.

He recorded with The Medallions on Dootone, with The Four Dots on Freedom, and then with singer Eddie Daniels as "Jewel and Eddie" on the Silver Records label in 1960. A number of his recordings featured Eddie Cochran on guitar. He later went solo and recorded "The Birds and the Bees" in 1964, on the Era Records label. The single went to Number 3 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart that year, and Number 2 on the Cash Box chart. It reached Number 29 in the UK Singles Chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. But the follow-up, "Georgie Porgie" only reached Number 68.

Akens toured regularly since 1965 and included a tribute to his mentor, Sam Cooke, in most of his shows. He also fronted a group billing itself as The Coasters, though it featured no actual original members of the group. Akens considered his cover versions of "Little Bitty Pretty One" by Thurston Harris and "You Better Move On" by Arthur Alexander to be his best work. He toured with The Monkees in the late 1960s and continued in the music business until the middle of the 1970s. Akens undertook more shows (2006-2011) with a new set of Dots, that consisted of Al Martin, Hurley D and songwriter and producer Richard Dickson.