Lou Johnson (singer)
Encyclopedia
Lou Johnson is an American
soul
singer and pianist who was active as a recording artist in the 1960s and early 1970s.
choirs in his teens, before studying music at Brooklyn College
. He learned keyboards and percussion, and formed a gospel group, the Zionettes, who recorded for Simpson Records and achieved some local success. Johnson then formed a secular vocal group, the Coanjos, with Tresia Cleveland and Ann Gissendammer, recording "Dance The Boomerang" before Cleveland and Gissendammer left to become The Soul Sisters. In 1962, Johnson signed as a solo singer with Big Top Records
, run by the Hill & Range
music publishing company in the Brill Building
. There, he met the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach
and Hal David
, who wrote Johnson's first single, "If I Never Get To Love You". Neither it nor his second record, "You Better Let Him Go", were hits, but his third single, "Reach Out For Me", also written by Bacharach and David, reached # 74 on the Billboard
Hot 100 in late 1963. However, as it rose up the charts the record company collapsed, limiting the record's success.
Johnson signed to its successor label, Big Hill, and continue to record Bacharach and David songs. In 1964, his original version of "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
", with backing vocals by Doris Troy
, Dee Dee Warwick
, and Cissy Houston
, reached # 49 in the US charts. In the UK, a cover version
by English singer Sandie Shaw
rose to number one on the British singles chart. Johnson also recorded the original versions of several other Bacharach and David songs that later proved to be bigger hits for other musician
s. "Reach Out for Me
", "Message to Michael
(Kentucky Bluebird)" (originally "A Message To Martha"), and "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" were all American hits, also produced by Bacharach and David, for Dionne Warwick
. Several of his records reached the Cashbox R&B Top 20. In the UK, Johnson's version of "A Message To Martha" was his biggest hit, reaching # 36 in late 1964, but was outsold by the cover version by Adam Faith
.
In 1965, working with the production team of Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye on the reactivated Big Top label, Johnson recorded a vocal version of Sidney Bechet
's instrumental
hit of a few years earlier, "Petite Fleur
", entitled "A Time To Love, A Time To Cry". He appeared on the British TV programme Ready Steady Go!
to promote it, but neither it nor its follow-ups, a version of the jazz standard
"Anytime
" and then a version of "Walk On By" co-produced by Allen Toussaint
, were successful, and the record company's choice of songs distanced him from his earlier audience. An album, also called Anytime, went unreleased as the record company again collapsed.
Johnson recorded two albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first, Sweet Southern Soul, for the Atlantic
subsidiary Cotillion
, was produced
by that company's main R&B producer, Jerry Wexler
, at Fame Studios
in Muscle Shoals
. Allen Toussaint produced the second, With You in Mind, at his New Orleans studio for Stax
's Volt label
, but neither proved commercially successful. After moving to Orange County, California
, Johnson became a nightclub
entertainer. He sometimes performed in a latter day version of The Ink Spots
.
A CD
retrospective of his recordings
with Big Top/Big Hill Records
in New York in the 1960s, was put together by the UK
label Ace/KentRecords in 2010. Although still released in mono
, it contained 'audio-restored' versions of all of his known recordings made at that time, including his work with Bacharach.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
singer and pianist who was active as a recording artist in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Life and career
Coming from a musical family, he started singing in gospelGospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
choirs in his teens, before studying music at Brooklyn College
Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College
The Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College is the music school of Brooklyn College of the City University of New York...
. He learned keyboards and percussion, and formed a gospel group, the Zionettes, who recorded for Simpson Records and achieved some local success. Johnson then formed a secular vocal group, the Coanjos, with Tresia Cleveland and Ann Gissendammer, recording "Dance The Boomerang" before Cleveland and Gissendammer left to become The Soul Sisters. In 1962, Johnson signed as a solo singer with Big Top Records
Big Top Records
Bigtop Records was an American record label started by music executive Johnny Bienstock and the music publisher Hill & Range Music. Hit artists included Del Shannon, Johnny and the Hurricanes, Lou Johnson, Sammy Turner, Don and Juan, and Toni Fisher, Big Top also distributed Paul Case's Dunes...
, run by the Hill & Range
Hill & Range
Hill & Range is a music publishing company which was particularly responsible for much of the country music produced in the 1950s and 1960s, and had control over the material recorded by Elvis Presley over that period....
music publishing company in the Brill Building
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood...
. There, he met the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
and Hal David
Hal David
Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...
, who wrote Johnson's first single, "If I Never Get To Love You". Neither it nor his second record, "You Better Let Him Go", were hits, but his third single, "Reach Out For Me", also written by Bacharach and David, reached # 74 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot 100 in late 1963. However, as it rose up the charts the record company collapsed, limiting the record's success.
Johnson signed to its successor label, Big Hill, and continue to record Bacharach and David songs. In 1964, his original version of "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
" Always Something There to Remind Me" is a song written in the 1960s by songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David.-First charting versions:...
", with backing vocals by Doris Troy
Doris Troy
Doris Troy was an American R&B singer, known to her many fans as "Mama Soul".She was born as Doris Higginson in The Bronx, the daughter of a Barbadian Pentecostal minister. Her parents disapproved of "subversive" forms of music like rhythm & blues, so she cut her teeth singing in her father's choir...
, Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick
Dee Dee Warwick was an American soul singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey as Delia Mae Warrick, she was the sister of Dionne Warwick, niece of Cissy Houston and cousin of Whitney Houston....
, and Cissy Houston
Cissy Houston
Emily "Cissy" Houston is a Grammy Award–winning American soul and gospel singer. She led a very successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Wishbone Ash and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist...
, reached # 49 in the US charts. In the UK, a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
by English singer Sandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw is an English pop singer, who was one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. In 1967 she was the first UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest...
rose to number one on the British singles chart. Johnson also recorded the original versions of several other Bacharach and David songs that later proved to be bigger hits for other musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s. "Reach Out for Me
Reach Out for Me
"Reach Out for Me" is a 1964 single by Dionne Warwick, a song originally recorded by Lou Johnson. Her single, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, is a track from the album Make Way for Dionne Warwick. It was a number twenty hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and went to number one on the Cash Box...
", "Message to Michael
Message to Michael
"Message to Michael" is a 1966 Top Ten hit by Dionne Warwick, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The song's lyrics are addressed to a bluebird by a woman in Kentucky whose sweetheart is vainly pursuing musical stardom in New Orleans; the woman asks the bluebird to take a message to Michael,...
(Kentucky Bluebird)" (originally "A Message To Martha"), and "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" were all American hits, also produced by Bacharach and David, for Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
. Several of his records reached the Cashbox R&B Top 20. In the UK, Johnson's version of "A Message To Martha" was his biggest hit, reaching # 36 in late 1964, but was outsold by the cover version by Adam Faith
Adam Faith
Terence "Terry" Nelhams-Wright, known as Adam Faith was a Teen idol English singer, actor and later financial journalist. He was one of the most charted acts of the 1960s. He became the first UK artist to lodge his initial seven hits in the Top 5...
.
In 1965, working with the production team of Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye on the reactivated Big Top label, Johnson recorded a vocal version of Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
's instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
hit of a few years earlier, "Petite Fleur
Petite Fleur
Petite Fleur is a successful instrumental written by Sidney Bechet and recorded in January 1952 with the Sidney Bechet All Stars.In 1959 it was a big hit for Chris Barber's Jazz Band...
", entitled "A Time To Love, A Time To Cry". He appeared on the British TV programme Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go! or simply RSG! was one of the UK's first rock/pop music TV programmes. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan was assisted by record producer/talent manager Vicki Wickham, who became the producer. It was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966...
to promote it, but neither it nor its follow-ups, a version of the jazz standard
Standard
A technical standard is an established norm or requirement about technical systems. It is usually a formal document that establishes uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes and practices. In contrast, a custom, convention, company product, corporate standard, etc...
"Anytime
Anytime (1921 song)
"Anytime" is a popular song written by Herbert "Happy" Lawson. The song was published in 1939.The song is best known in a 1952 recording by Eddie Fisher...
" and then a version of "Walk On By" co-produced by Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
, were successful, and the record company's choice of songs distanced him from his earlier audience. An album, also called Anytime, went unreleased as the record company again collapsed.
Johnson recorded two albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first, Sweet Southern Soul, for the Atlantic
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
subsidiary Cotillion
Cotillion Records
Cotillion Records was a subsidiary of Atlantic Records and was active from 1968 through 1985. The label was originally formed as an outlet for blues and deep Southern soul; its first single, Otis Clay's version of "She's About A Mover", reached the R&B charts. Cotillion's catalog quickly expanded...
, was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by that company's main R&B producer, Jerry Wexler
Jerry Wexler
Gerald "Jerry" Wexler was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s...
, at Fame Studios
FAME Studios
FAME Studios are located at 603 East Avalon in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. They have been an integral part of American popular music from the late 1950s to the present...
in Muscle Shoals
Muscle Shoals
Muscle Shoals may refer to:* Muscle Shoals, Alabama* Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section* Muscle Shoals Sound Studio* Leo "Muscle" Shoals...
. Allen Toussaint produced the second, With You in Mind, at his New Orleans studio for Stax
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...
's Volt label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, but neither proved commercially successful. After moving to Orange County, California
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
, Johnson became a nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
entertainer. He sometimes performed in a latter day version of The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots
The Ink Spots were a popular vocal group in the 1930s and 1940s that helped define the musical genre that led to rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and the subgenre doo-wop...
.
A CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
retrospective of his recordings
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
with Big Top/Big Hill Records
Big Top Records
Bigtop Records was an American record label started by music executive Johnny Bienstock and the music publisher Hill & Range Music. Hit artists included Del Shannon, Johnny and the Hurricanes, Lou Johnson, Sammy Turner, Don and Juan, and Toni Fisher, Big Top also distributed Paul Case's Dunes...
in New York in the 1960s, was put together by the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
label Ace/KentRecords in 2010. Although still released in mono
Monaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
, it contained 'audio-restored' versions of all of his known recordings made at that time, including his work with Bacharach.