NOT SO UNUSUAL

Hey, Jon B! (“Stayin’ Alive in the ‘90s,” July 12) When, as a student in the late ‘60s, I was the only white dancer included in “Trade-Tech A-Go-Go” (at Los Angeles Trade Technical College), I, too, took some name-calling for my love of R&B; music and culture. We all experienced amused shock, however, when it was discovered during rehearsals that “It’s Not Unusual,” sung by African American twin brothers in our show, was actually recorded by a white Brit soloist: Tom Jones. Although there are many shades of pale, let me add a few pop-jazz-blues singers to your blue-eyed soul list that already includes Michael McDonald. How ‘bout: Vanilla Fudge, the Righteous Bros, Eric Burdon, Janis Joplin, Delaney & Bonnie, Joe Cocker, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Mose Allison and Leon Russell. You may be new J.B., but you’re part of an old, old tradition.

LORETTA AYEROFF

Los Angeles