SONGS ABOUT A GUY NAMED JOHNNY: A BASIC JOHNNY PLAYLIST

When's the last time you met a "Johnny?"  Though it's possibly the most common character name in any song, I can't recall ever meeting a Johnny in real life.  I know some Johns and some Jacks, too.  No Johnny's though.  You probably meet at least 10 Brians per year.  But can you name any Brian Songs—besides the tear-jerker James Caan movie? I had three roommates named Collin when I was in college.  Hell, I would bet there's probably eight to 10 Collins in every dormitory across the country. No songs immortalize the name Collin, however.  

When I really focus and think about it,  the only Johnny's I even know of are musicians themselves.  There's Johnny Cash, Johnny Mathis,  Johnny Depp—he plays guitar in case you didn't know.  Where were we? Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Jonny Greenwood, Johnny Rotten Johnny Winters...

What about the non-musicians? Johnny Damon, Johnny Carson, Johnny Knoxville...

Johnny Knoxville...

Johnny Knoxville...

I wish I could find out the answer to why there are so many Johnny songs.  I don't think I have the means to accomplish this.  Maybe I'll tweet Barbara Walters or Scott Pelley and they can do some research.  I'm sure respectable newspeople like them would find this to be very compelling stuff that the public needs to know about.  

I don't want you to feel like I wasted your time with this post.  So let's listen to some of the best "Johnny songs."  if you're into contributing, feel free to comment with some others.  It'd be kind of cool if we could catalogue all the Johnny songs.  It would serve no one and there wouldn't be any tangible reward, but it's a project.  And maybe we could make The Times Picayune or something.  I'm pretty sure they're no longer a daily newspaper, so maybe they could use some content.  I make no promises. 

I swear, I thought I had a point when I started writing this. I swear!

Songs About A Guy Named Johnny: A Basic Johnny Playlist

SINGLES GOING STEADY: "HEY SCHOOLGIRL" BY TOM AND JERRY

The year was 1957.  A young Neil Sedaka was striking out on his own after having regional success with his band The Tokens.  Bill Haley was reminding us that there is no 13 o'clock after 12 o'clock with his band The Comets.  Buddy Holly was touring with a singing duo named The Everly Brothers and those Everly Brothers were inspiring two singing teenagers from New York City with their terrific harmonies.  One of those teens had an angelic voice.  The other could sing, too, but his real talent was in songwriting.

They were only 15, but their songs were becoming very popular among their classmates at Forest Hills High School in Queens.  One song in particular was all the buzz.  It was called "Hey Schoolgirl".  For  $25, the teens recorded a demo of "Hey Schoolgirl," hoping to impress the music men making hits at the nearby Brill Building.  In the next room was a producer named Sid Prosen who worked for a newish record label called Big Records.  He cut the record, gave them some clean-cut clothes to match the innocence of their age and gave them stage names, too.  The songwriter and guitarist would be called Jerry Landis and the angelic tenor would be called Tom Graph.  Together, they would be known as Tom and Jerry.

(L-R: Jerry Landis and Tom Graph)

Tom and Jerry managed to appear after Jerry Lee Lewis on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, where they premiered their single. The performance made "Hey Schoolgirl" somewhat of a hit song.  It reached Number 49 on the charts and eventually sold 100,000 copies.  They recorded some more songs, none of which did a damn thing—that probably broke their little hearts.  In 1959, Tom and Jerry turned 18 and they went off to college.  Their career was over.  

Or was it?

Subsequent bullshit happened for a few years and then Tom and Jerry decided to reunite.  This time they used their real names, which were Arthur and Paul, respectively.  The success Arthur and Paul had—and have continued to have— was enormous.  Together they became one of the biggest acts of the 60s, racking up hit songs, Grammys and critical acclaim along the way.  Of course, we know Arthur and Paul better as Art and Paul.  Perhaps their names are more familiar with when they are reversed as Paul and Art.  If you haven't figured it out by now, they are Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.  

Here's one of their songs called "The Only Living Boy In New York."  It should now surprise no one that the song's first line "Tom get your plane right on time" refers to Tom Graph aka Art Garfunkel.  Wild.  

"Hey Schoolgirl" by Tom and Jerry and "The Only Living Boy In New York" by Simon & Garfunkel

I wonder if there were any Tom and Jerry fans who are completely unaware that the singing duo later became Simon & Garfunkel.  Probably not.  

SINGLES GOING STEADY: "GO ALL THE WAY" AND "OVERNIGHT SENSATION (HIT RECORD)" BY THE RASPBERRIES

Cleveland Power Popstars: The Raspberries

The Raspberries should have been huge.  This has been acknowledged by everyone from John Lennon and Elton John to Kurt Cobain and Guns 'N Roses.

Bruce Springsteen once said in an interview with USA Today, "In the [recording "stretch" for 1980's The River] I had gotten into Woody Guthrie and country music and at the same time, I was listening to The Raspberries Greatest Hits.  It was one of my favorite records that summer.  They were great little pop records.  I loved the production, and when I went into the stuidio a lot of things we did were like that."

The Raspberries formed outside of Cleveland, OH in 1970.  It was a quartet led by a singer/songwriter named Eric Carmen.  And to be fair, while they weren't huge, they did have their 15 minutes of fame.   Their 1972 single "Go All The Way" managed to sell more than one million copies and broke the Top 5, in the process.  According to rock critic Mark Deming, the song "is without a doubt among the finest records ever made about one of the key subjects in rock 'n roll—convincing your girlfriend to have sex with you."  

While the irresitable melody and The Who influenced guitar riff made the song huge, the sexuality in the lyrics put a road block in the song's commercial potential.  The BBC were none too pleased by the sexiness and they banned it from the radio.  Kind of funny, if you ask me, because by today's standards, it would be the fucking tamest shit on the radio!—oops, I gotta wash my mouth out now.  

P.S.  Yes, the "come ons" in the lyrics were influenced by The Beatles' "Please Please Me."

"Go All The Way" by The Raspberries

The Raspberries had a few more minor singles but by the mid 70s they seemed to have gone "all the way" the public would let them.  It's not that listeners and critics disliked them, it's that they were filed more often under "guilty pleasures" and less under "classics." The band tried to remedy that in 1974 with a new-ish lineup and a record entitled Starting Over.  Ironically, Starting Over would be the The Raspberries' farewell album.

The album's opening track "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" was an instant classic and a truly incredible epic power pop track.  Like "Go All The Way" it is written about one of rock and roll's most loved subjects—dying to make it big!  I'm sure this was a track Springsteen fell in love with.

The song features an incredible Phil Spector-ish, wall-of-sound production, a gorgeous piano interlude which leads into a perfect guitar solo and later into an unexpected bridge.  The arrangement isn't quite a suite, but it has at least three totally distinct hooks and two codas—one of which is appropriately taken from the recording of "Go All The Way."   The band sounds like they are singing and playing for their lives. Without a doubt, "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" is an absolute masterpiece and should be studied by producers and songwriters everywhere.  

P.S. All you drummers out there should take notice, too. The drum fills are outstanding! 

"Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" by The Raspberries