Chart entered : 14 December 1952
Chart peak : 12
Number of hits : 21
Johnnie completes the line-up of those who qualify from the first ever chart. He also has the dubious honour of being the first person to drop out of the charts as this record only lasted one week. Johnnie's time in the sun almost exactly mirrors that of Guy Mitchell. They were born a month apart, were in this first chart together and as we shall see their final hits entered the charts just a week apart. Guy had an extra number one but Johnnie had more hits so honours about even.
Coming to this post I knew just slithers of information about Johnnie. Like most people I knew he was immortalised by being name-dropped in the first line of one of the most well-loved number ones of all time ( far from mine but I must bow to the popular will there ) . I also knew that he was the only previous singer before Morrissey to wear a hearing aid on stage. And a review of a Gene Pitney compilation in Q years ago mentioned him as being Pitney's only peer in wringing the maximum amount of emotion out of a song. Other than that he's a very shadowy figure.
And "Walking My Baby Back Home" does little to change that. I already knew the song because when our household acquired a record player in 1976 , one of the first LPs my mum bought was by the vertically-challenged but big-voiced comic actor Don Estelle. With so few records to choose from at first we listened to it a lot and this was the first song Don sang on that. It's a jazz standard dating back to 1930. Johnnie does it as a big band number and sings the first verse straight then wanders off key and back again as the music gets louder and more aggressive behind him. It's a bit like Sinatra on acid and I wasn't expecting something this raw and ragged so early.
Turning to Johnnie's earlier US hits, the first , "Whiskey and Gin" ( which he wrote himself ) is another big band number where Johnnie cuts loose with increasing passion as the record progresses and you begin to understand why Kevin Rowland identified with him. The monster hits "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cried " turn what should be sedate doo wop ballads into emotional tours de force. You begin to understand why the "Prince of Wails" was considered the most exciting thing in music prior to Elvis.
Like you, my own pre-knowledge of the guy was that first verse in that #1 hit decades after his heyday.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm right in saying we won't be covering Rowland's mob (unless they garner a top 40 hit sometime in the near future)... shame, as their first and last hits were certainly very different.
It would be a shame but happily they're over the bar with one to spare.
ReplyDeleteMy mistake - was just counting top 40 hits
ReplyDelete