Chart entered : 7 August 1968
Chart peak : 5
Number of hits : 10
Well I was wrong to suggest Gladys Knight and the Pips were the last artists we'd discuss who'd recorded in the fifties. Johnny's first UK hit came more than a decade after his first appearance in the US charts.
John Nash was born in Texas in 1940. He sang in his Baptist church choir and was appearing on local television from the age of 13. At sixteen he was signed up by ABC-Paramount and released his first single, "A Teenager Sings The Blues" in November 1956. It's an odd item with an authentic Billie Holliday -style languid blues setting for a lyric which mentions a jukebox, soda and cherry coke. Johnny's semi-operatic vocal, exceptional for his age , is as solemn as if he were singing about a lynching. His second single "I'll Walk Alone" six months later is more standard fifties teen pop in a Paul Anka vein.
Johnny broke into the American charts in 1958 with his third single "A Very Special Love" , previously a hit for Doris Day. It's very MOR , the label now marketing him as a teenage Johnny Mathis. It reached number 23. The quick follow-up the schmaltzy "My Pledge To You" didn't do anything. Neither did "Please Don't Go" or "You're Looking At Me" which I haven't heard. He got back in the charts at number 78 with the light swing number "Almost In Your Arms" from the Cary Grant film Houseboat although Sam Cooke sang it in the movie.
He was then teamed up with fellow whippersnappers Paul Anka and George Hamilton IV for the gobsmackingly awful "The Teen Commandments" which reached number 29. It's a turn-taking spoken word item with such gems as "At the first moment , turn away from unclean thinking -at the first moment !" . I think it's the babysitter-bothering Anka giving us that one. I'd like to know how many teens as opposed to their parents actually bought the wretched thing. Johnny's next single "Walk With Faith In Your Heart " ( later a UK hit for The Bachelors ) continued in the religious vein and is similar to I Believe but it didn't chart.
He got back in the charts at the beginning of 1959 with a pleasant enough version of "As Time Goes By" but it was to be his last hit for five years. He branched out into films with a praised performance in Take A Giant Step in 1959. Nevertheless he continued to record and closed out the fifties with three flops, the big band jazz of "Baby, Baby Baby" , the theme tune from his film and the polite teen pop of "The Wish".
I've not heard his first sixties single "Goodbye". His second "Never My Love" continues in the junior Mathis furrow. "Let The Rest Of The World Go By" is all too apt as Johnny trots through a bit of fluff originally recorded by the Fontane Sisters three years earlier. "( Looks Like ) The End Of The World" isn't the Goffin-King song but is Brill Building - style pop and has a great vocal performance. It's probably his best record to date in his career. I haven't heard "Somebody" from November 1960.
"Some Of Your Lovin'" from January 1961 saw him team up with Phil Spector and is a huge improvement . Spector co-wrote the tune which is a big dramatic song with Johnny sounding a lot like Gene Pitney. It sounds like a hit and you suspect Johnny's name as a failed crooner was the main factor depressing its performance. I don't know "I Need Someone To Stand By Me" from April 1961 but July's "I'm Counting On You" again sounds like Pitney. September's "Too Much Love" sees a bit of R & B influence creeping in although the song borrows heavily from Under The Moon Of Love.
That was the end for ABC-Paramount. His next single in April 1962 "Don't Take Away Your Love" came out on Warner Brothers. Johnny's style is now very similar to Sam Cooke and the song has some melodic similarity to Wonderful World . Despite having rarely recorded his own compositions Johnny then scored a top 20 hit as a writer with Joey Dee and the Starliters' "What Is This Thing". Typically Johnny's own next single was a version of "Ol' Man River " given a light R & B arrangement.
By 1963 he was on to his third label with Groove releasing "I've Got A Lot To Offer Darling" in May which sounds like Sam Cooke and Gene Pitney duetting on a dramatic flamenco number. The song isn't quite strong enough to justify the big production number. "Deep In The Heart Of Harlem" melds the same influences on a song of drudgery that owes something to Up On The Roof but is pretty good.
His next single - and last for Groove - was "I'm Leaving" written by his wife Margaret and his best Sam Cooke impersonation yet. By May 1964 he was on label number four Argo with a self-produced single "Talk To Me" written by Joe Seneca which is rather soporific pop soul. "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" is a soft soul ballad written by John D Loudermilk which is absolutely fine if that's your bag.
In March 1965 he switched to a more R & B sound with "Strange Feeling" with its grinding groove augmented by some strange instrumentation."Teardrops In The Rain" a month later saw him sign off with Argo with another wistful ballad.
Johnny then set up his own label with Danny Sims. It started out as Joda but was later called JAD. Ironically Johnny's first single on it in August 1965 , the slow-burning soul of Margaret's "Let's Move And Groove Together" , restored him to the US charts at number 88 ( 4 in the R & B chart ). Unfortunately his next singles "One More Time" ( again penned by Margaret ) and a rather dreary version of the West Side Story warhorse "Somewhere" didn't follow suit.
Johnny found promoting his own records at the same time as managing other artists was too much so he signed to MGM . I haven't heard the first two singles "Amen", and "Good Goodness" but the third one "Glad You're My Baby " from September 1967 is quintessential Northern Soul. However Johnny was not destined to pursue that direction.
In early 1968 Johnny travelled to Jamaica where Margaret had family and was re-energised by the local music scene . JAD was de-mothballed , both for the Jamaican artists he wanted to promote such as The Wailers ( we'll be coming back to them ) and his own recordings
So at long last we come to "Hold Me Tight" which Johnny wrote himself and recorded in Kingston. In the US it was released on JAD but picked up by Regal Zonophone in the UK- someone in their A &R department must have picked up a fat bonus around this time. I didn't think I knew it from the title but it is vaguely familiar. It's a perfect example of the pop/ rocksteady ( not yet reggae ) crossover that would henceforward become his trademark with his smooth vocal, clipped guitar and an attractive melody resting on the Jamaican rhythms. It reached number 5 on both sides of the Atlantic and went all the way to the top in Canada.
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