Rob Jungklas is an Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

-based musician, singer and songwriter.

Jungklas worked in the Memphis-based music circuit for 15 years before signing a deal with Manhattan Records

Manhattan Records

Manhattan Records is a United States record label, owned by EMI and operates as a subsidiary of The Blue Note Label Group.-Company history:Manhattan Records was formed in 1984 by Bruce Lundvall, and was later renamed EMI Manhattan Records after absorbing EMI America Records imprint...

 and releasing the album Closer to the Flame in 1986. The album contained the minor hit "Make It Mean Something" which reached #86 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. Another song, "Boystown," had a video directed by Godley & Creme

Godley & Creme

Godley & Creme were an English pop music duo composed of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The pair began releasing albums as a duo after splitting from the pop band 10cc. In 1979 they directed their first music video for their own single "An Englishman in New York"...

 (in the same rapid-jump-cut style of their video for Wang Chung

Wang Chung (band)

Wang Chung are an English New Wave musical group.The group found their greatest success in America, with five Top 40 hits in the US, all charting between 1983 and 1987, including "Dance Hall Days" , "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" and "Let's Go!" .-Pre-history: The Intellektuals and 57 Men :Jeremy...

's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight

Everybody Have Fun Tonight

"Everybody Have Fun Tonight" is a song by Wang Chung from their album Mosaic. It was released as a single in 1986, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart....

"). "Hello Heaven," another song on the album, appeared on the soundtrack of the 1987 movie The Principal

The Principal

The Principal is a 1987 action film, starring James Belushi and Louis Gossett, Jr. It was written by Frank Deese and directed by Christopher Cain, and filmed in Oakland, California.-Plot:...

.

Jungklas recorded a second album that was not released; he then moved to RCA Records

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

, where his album Work Songs for a New Moon was released in 1989. The album was not a commercial success, and he left the label. Jungklas then left the music business; he married, earned a college degree and got a job teaching English and science at the Hutchison School

Hutchison School

Hutchison School is an independent day school for girls in grades PK-12 located in Memphis, Tennessee.- History :Hutchison School was founded by Mary Grimes Hutchison in 1902. The first few years of the school included the training of young boys and girls by Miss Hutchison alone. One of its most...

 in Memphis. He moved to work at St. Georges Collierville working as a 7th grade science teacher. Jungklas began playing music again in 2001, and released the album Arkadelphia in 2003 on Memphis-based label Madjack Records. Its blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

-based sound was a major departure from his rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

-oriented 1980s releases. Jungklas played several shows opening for Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...

in support of the album. Jungklas released another blues-based album, Gully, in 2007. In August 2010, he released Mapping the Wreckage.

Discography

• Closer to the Flame (1986)
• Work Songs for a New Moon (1989)
• Arkadelphia (2003)
• Gully (2007)
• "Mapping the Wreckage"(2010)

External links

• Rob Jungklas' MySpace page
• "A teacher channels Memphis gothic," Memphis Commercial Appeal, November 23, 2007.