Chart entered : 11 August 1979
Chart peak : 15
Another fifties survivor bids us adieu in unnecessarily emphatic fashion. I couldn't recall this from the title alone but when I heard it again it was familiar
Johnny had easily beaten Jerry Lee Lewis's comeback record in 1975 when he came back with "I'm Stone In Love With You" twelve years after "What Will Mary Say" ( itself his first hit for three years ). He ended the following year at number one with the oddly appealing schmaltz of When A Child Is Born" one of the more forgotten Christmas number ones ( at least until the Prince of Darkness appropriated the institution ). Since then he'd had a couple of hits with light disco duets partnering the much younger Deneice Williams and this one was in the same vein.
"Gone, Gone, Gone " was written by L Russell Brown, who was partly responsible for Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree and the otherwise unknown to me Lisa Hayward. Motown veteran Gene Page arranged the single and Jack Gold produced. John Luongo then tweaked it for the dancefloor. All Johnny has to do then is add his effortless light croon to the swishing hi-hats, chattering percussion and Martini-ad string flourishes. His baby's left him in the lurch but he doesn't sound all that bothered frankly. The repetitive chorus has something of an irritant quality which fixes it in your brain but it's not exactly lovable.
Its high chart placing in the UK ( it didn't chart in the U S ) might have something to do with a pressing error by CBS. The first pressings contained Luongo's full 6.30 disco mix ( which no doubt sounded a bit tinny on 7 inch ) . This was changed in the second pressing to the 3.40 radio edit but the actual label wasn't changed at all and still gave the timing at 6.30 . No doubt some of the punters who bought this felt a bit short changed.
His next single in the UK was the MOR ballad "You Saved My Life" ( written by Arnold and Morrow ) in January 1980 , a duet with British musical actress Stephanie Lawrence who's never had a hit of any description. The parent album "Mathis Magic" reached 59 in the UK . There were no more singles as CBS switched to promoting a compilation LP "Tears And Laughter " instead. The trailer single was a version of Melissa Manchester's 1975 US hit "Midnight Blue" It's classy , tasteful and all that but strictly Radio Two material in 1980 . Its failure didn't affect sales of the album which spent two weeks at number one in March.
A new album followed very quickly , "Different Kinda Different " ( re-titled "All For You" in the UK ). In the wake of the compilation it got to number 20 although the singles, a bedroom soul duet with Chaka Khan's predecessor in Rufus, Paulette McWilliams "I'll Do It All For You" and a pointless cover of "Three Times A Lady " ( only tacked on to the LP in the UK ) didn't chart.
Anxious to stay in touch with contemporary trends Johnny booked the Chic duo to work with him in February 1981. Johnny thoroughly enjoyed the experience and a full LP "I Love My Lady" was produced but Columbia declined to release it. Johnny hasn't been very forthcoming about what was said at the time. Individual tracks have been released for compilations by both parties and the results seem OK if not the best work to bear the Rogers/Edwards credit. The full album remains unreleased.
Columbia went with another compilation instead "Celebration- The Anniversary Album" which reached number 9 in September 1981. An inferior re-recording of "When A Child Is Born" with Gladys Knight and the Pips reached number 74 at Christmas and marked Johnny's last appearance in the singles chart.
Johnny's next new album was "Friends In Love" , a safe collection of MOR ballads and recent covers. The first single was the title track , a duet with Dionne Warwick six months before her Bee Gees-assisted comeback. It's standard superstar duet fodder and got to number 38 in the US though it was ignored over here. The second single "Somethin's Going On" is Latin-tinged MOR pop and instantly forgettable. The third was the album's other duet with Warwick "Got You Where I Want You" a classy pop soul number that perhaps should have been earlier in the schedule. The album reached number 34 ( much better than in the States where it struggled to 147). Johnny then halfheartedly admitted to being gay in an interview with US Magazine which didn't do anything to boost his career.
In 1983 he did a BBC concert special featuring the songs of his idol Nat King Cole. The concert also featured Natalie Cole and the recording was released as "Unforgettable". The album reached number 5 in the UK but there were no singles. Confusingly it was released at the same time as the unrelated single "One Love", a smooth soul ballad with Johnny in impeccable voice. It was included on his 1984 album "A Special Part of Me" which reached number 45 in the UK. The other singles were "Love Won't Let Me Wait" , a sultry version of the Major Harris hit in tandem with Williams ( shortly before she broke back big with Let's Hear It For The Boy ) and "Simple" , a mid-paced R & B number on which Johnny crosses into Luther Vandross territory. It gave Johnny his last US hit when it reached number 81.
This minor success prompted Johnny to move into contemporary R & B with his next studio album "Right From The Heart" in 1985 which features no covers and a lot of synths. The single "Hooked On Goodbye" is lumpy and tuneless and Johnny sounds uncomfortable in the midst of the robotic electro rhythms. The album failed to chart anywhere even though Johnny did a guest appearance in the US soap Ryan's Hope at the time of its release.
Johnny retreated back into MOR with a Christmas album and then , hoping to cash in on the recent success of Linda Ronstadt and Barbra Streisand with similar projects, an album of standards "The Hollywood Musicals" with Henry Mancini. The single was "It Might As Well Be Spring" from State Fair. It could have been made in the fifties. The album got to number 46 in the UK in 1986, his last charting album in the UK for 20 years.
In 1988 he released "Daydreamin" written and produced by successful R &B songwriter Preston Glass. Again Johnny's old school croon doesn't really mesh with the eighties production values and it missed out despite an appearance and not entirely respectful interview on Wogan. That seems to have been his last single in the UK.
It was really Johnny's last stab at being a contemporary artist and there's little more to tell here. He's carried on making MOR albums for a mature audience interspersed with compilations. Most of them haven't charted ( although 2008's "A Night To Remember " got to number 29 in the UK ) but presumably sell well enough to keep Columbia happy. His most recent "new" album was 2013's "Sending You A Little Christmas" on which he does "Do You Hear What I Hear ? " with Susan Boyle !
Still sprightly on the golf course, he turns eighty later this year.
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