Keith was born James Barry Keefer in 1949 in Philadelphia and this was his only hit in Britain, reaching No 24 in 1967. It got to No 7 in America. It was written by Tony Powers (lyrics) and George Fischoff. The title refers to the normal human body temperature in Fahrenheit, although I always thought this was 98.4.
Keith: 98.6
Square
That’s a great record; I’ve got his LP “Adventures of Keith” which is a nice psychedelic curio.
“98.6” was covered by the Welsh group The Bystanders, who went on to become the group Man. Quite good I think, and they were definitely very British sounding compared to Keith.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T482MzpstNo
The Bystanders did the original version of “Jesamine”, although their version was called “When Jesamine Goes”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDuuHQX9plI
It’s not a patch on the famous Casuals version, which is one of the greats of the 1960s. This never fails to move me, especially when I hear it on a medium wave station.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMA8pGPKBhc