âFake Janâ Geri Reischl Steps Into Spotlight As Performance Of âYour Songâ Honored By Rock nâ Roll Hall Of Fame
A much-loved but often maligned 1970s variety show will soon see the spotlight again.Â  The Brady Bunch HourÂ was an American variety television series produced by television dynamos Sid and Marty Krofft and aired on ABC between 1976 to 1977.Â  When the original âJanâ â actress Eve Plumb â refused to act in the BB Hour, unknown actress Geri Reischl seized the opportunity of a lifetime.Â  Reischl showed her singing talent in a sublime rendition of Elton Johnâs âYour Song.â In February the Rock nâ Roll Hall of Fame will induct Reischlâs âYour Songâ performance into the Hall in a new category called âTV Talent and Variety.âÂ  Reischle belted the Elton John masterpiece in 1977 and made it her own.Â  After watching the performance in England, Elton John famously said that had he heard Reischleâs version earlier he never would have recorded it himself but instead licensed it to her. Some music critics panned Reischlâs Â soaring vibrato as overly dramatic and lacking in control. Â Former MTV VJ Tim Hicks quipped in 1979 that âabout midway in the song Reischl sounds like a turbo vibrator playing the kazoo.â Â Rolling Stone music critic Ronnie Rosen, however, praises Reischl's intensity: âI remember sitting on my parents couch in 1977 and thinking âJan will never be second fiddle to Marsha again. Â She blew the roof off that classic tune and television would never be the same.âÂ  Rosen ranks Reischlâs performance just behind Elvisâ and The Beatlesâ performances on The Ed Sullivan Show as the most important television performances in rock history.