Johnny Tillotson

Bob Hayden & Alan Jackson
2007

Johnny Tillotson made a quick stop over in Sydney recently and appeared in concerts in Canberra and Sydney before heading back to the states. He has toured Australia many times before, but this was a trip that should have been longer, but time did not allow. This article takes a look at Johnny Tillotson from the early days of his career and reviews two of the recent Australian concerts.

Johnny Tillotson was born in April 1938 in Jacksonville, Florida USA, and then the family moved to Palataka in 1947. He showed an interest in country music, quickly becoming a good guitarist and singer, but like many others was changed after he saw Elvis Presley perform with the Hank Snow All Star Jamboree in May 1955. He considers Elvis Presley the best performer he has ever seen Johnny performed a three year stint on the “Toby Dowdy” show, but was then discovered and reached national prominence through the Nashville Pet Milk talent contest.

He was also working as a DJ for the country music radio station WWPF. An audition tape was sent by Lee Rosenberg to the Cadence record label, and Johnny Tillotson was signed to Cadence in 1958. His first release for Cadence was “Well I’m your man”, a modest rocker backed with “Dreamy eyes”, which would not be released as a single in Australia till 1962 where it entered the charts and reached position No 28 in Adelaide. In 1959 “Why do I love you so” fell somewhere between the eerie expressiveness of Presley’s “Blue moon” and the kind of R&B material done by Jimmy Clanton. The flip side was a cover version of the Johnny Ace song “Never let me go”.

Although this was released in Australia it did not chart, but did receive some air play in Melbourne and Sydney. Another single “True true happiness” backed with “Love is blind” followed shortly after and this, and surprisingly made the Adelaide charts with the highest position No 23. Johnny’s next single was released in early 1960, and was a cover of big hit for the late Johnny Ace titled “Pledging My Love” with the flip side “Earth Angel”, which was a huge hit for the Penguins a few years earlier. This song was another release that although got a little airplay never made it into the Australian top 40 charts.

1960 was the year Johnny’s biggest hit was released. “Poetry in motion” backed by a self penned song titled “Princess, Princess” turned out to be a great success.‘Poetry’ showed his gentle voice to perfection with the Nashville “A” team of musicians featuring Boots Randolph on sax. This song entered all the Australian charts, with Melbourne securing the top spot with position No 4. This single sold more than a million copies worldwide. By contrast, “Without you” released in 1961, was a grim ballad complete with spoken passage. This song was fully representative of the slow slide that had occurred in the late 50’s from joyous rock ‘n’ roll to refurbished Tin Pan Alley. The B side was a nice song titled “Cutie pie”. The A side managed to reach position No 23 in the Melbourne charts. “It keeps right on a hurtin’” released in 1962, was perhaps Johnny Tillotson’s finest composition and was delivered in a cool desolate manner with effective Nashville strings.

Elvis Presley recognized the quality of this song and recorded it for his 1969 comeback album “From Elvis in Memphis”. “It keeps right on a hurtin” has been recorded by more that 112 other artists in a wide variety of styles. It managed to reach No 5 in the Melbourne charts and gave Johnny another big seller all around Australia. Later in 1962, came a shuffling version of “Send me the pillow you dream on” coupled with a pop-country rendition of “What’ll I do”. This song managed to creep into the charts and reached position No 23 before it faded slowly out of the charts.

In Australia, he then had a strong hit with “Judy, Judy, Judy”, which was unusual because the other side “Out of my mind” was the hit in the USA, and in Australia that song was released prior to “Judy” as a separate single and charted in the mid twenties.Australia took a liking to “Judy, Judy, Judy” which stayed in the charts for many weeks and reached as high as No 4 in the Melbourne charts.. After the collapse of the Cadence record company, Johnny Tillotson joined the MGM label, and had success with “You can never stop me loving you”, which managed to climb to No 17 in the Melbourne charts. Not long after he scored another good seller with his version of “Talk back trembling lips’ on MGM which flew up the charts, in no time at all and reached a high No 5 on the Adelaide charts.

As the years passed Johnny Tillotson succeeded in modifying his image, and in 1966 he gave critically acclaimed performances in New York’s Copacabana night club. These appearances were followed by engagements in Las Vegas, and then in clubs from Pittsburg to Puerto Rico.

He was also very popular in Japan where many of his releases, recorded in Japanese, made the local best seller charts. In 1968, Johnny moved to California, studied acting and then appeared in minor roles in TV and movies. Those recordings for Cadence and MGM may be considered to be the highlight of his career.

But being a man of quality taste and broad musical understanding, Johnny Tillotson has the capacity to surprise his audiences. In this context Johnny Tillotson has been nominated for a Grammy in 1962 and 1965. been one of the Cadence labels biggest selling artists. released well over 60 singles and numerous albums worldwide. achieved top 40 chart success in most countries around the world. toured Australia, and many other countries numerous times to capacity houses.

His quick tour in 2007 certainly proved Johnny Tillotson’s ability to attract strong crowds to his shows. The shows at Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL and Rooty Hill RSL during March were quite exceptional. At both shows the audiences were very close to capacity. Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL attracted more than 400 people and Rooty Hill RSL close to 500. Both show featured the Allstars, Joan Mifsud and from the USA, Johnny Tillotson. For these shows the Allstars comprised Noel Tresider (keyboards/vocals), Len Mc Gill (drums/vocals), Graham Broomfield (tenor sax), David Rogerson (guitar/vocals) and Ian B Allen (bass/vocals). The show opened with the Allstars performing tracks from their latest internationally released album ‘Be our guest’, which also features Johnny Preston, Chan Romero, Lucky Starr, Betty Mc Quade, Rick Diamond and Joan Mifsud. These fine musicians rocked out ‘Baby that’s rock-n-roll’, ‘Whole lotta shaking’, ‘ABC boogie’, ‘Hey baby’, ‘Hard times’, ‘Paralysed’ and ‘Be my guest’. It was very clear from the audience reaction that the Allstars, although based in Melbourne, were very welcome in these Sydney clubs and could easily have extended their segment of the show.

After about twenty minutes the Allstars introduced the first lady of the sixties television show, the Go Show, Joan Mifsud to join them. Joan performed a selection of the classic rock songs recorded by female artists during the sixties. This performance included ‘Dum dum’, ‘Be my baby’, ‘That’s all you gotta do’, ‘Da do ron ron’, ‘Will you love me tomorrow’, ‘Stupid Cupid’, ‘These boots are made for walking’, ‘Locomotion’ and many others. Of particular interest was the audience reaction to John D Loudermilk’s ‘Sad movies’ and ‘These boots are made for walking’.

The audience sang along enjoying Joan’s performance very much. After a short interval the Allstars rocked in to the introduction to Johnny B Goode. The Allstars then dropped the volume and announced that the artist coming on stage had three worldwide number one hits, sold tens of millions of records, 14 top forty hits, two Grammy nominations and two BMI song writing awards. Then, immaculately attired in a magnificent purple coat, Johnny Tillotson entered the stage and with the Allstars picked up Johnny B Goode and kept it rocking. With his very pleasant manner Johnny Tillotson welcomed the audience and moved in to ‘Wonderful world’, the Sam Cooke classic. Then the audience was treated to a wide selection of Johnny Tillotson hits – ‘Heartaches by the number’, ‘Send me the pillow you dream on’, ‘It keeps right on a hurtin’, and ‘Talk back trembling lips’. And the audience reaction was sensational. They very much enjoyed Johnny Tillotson’s enduring stage presence and wanted more, much more. Johnny Tillotson mentioned how Buddy Holly was the subject of a photographic project when Tillotson was studying at university.

The project achieved top marks as did Johnny Tillotson’s performances of ‘Oh boy’ and ‘Maybe baby’. He followed this with the Bob Seeger tune ‘Old time rock-n-roll’. Then the audience was introduced to the first hit song written by Johnny. He moved from the stage and wandered amongst the audience presenting a beautiful rendition of ‘Dreamy eyes’ and ‘Earth angel’. Then it was straight in to ‘You can never stop me loving you’. The audience loved it and were singing along to every song. He had them in the palm of his hand. Johnny Tillotson paid a very fine compliment to the Allstars for their most professional support for his show. Then it was in to ‘Without you’ and when he asked if there was anybody named Judy in the audience his request was met by the positive reaction of about twenty women and one jumped on to the stage to have the song performed to her by the international hit maker. With his very sensitive introduction about the way women move Johnny began ‘Poetry in motion’.

The sax of Graham Broomfield captured the Boots Randolph sound off the hit record and the audience knew every word as they sang this number one international hit with Johnny. Then after establishing that many in the audience had been married more than ten, twenty and some even thirty years Johnny sang the very tasteful ‘Then you can tell me good bye’. The subtle performance of this song by both Johnny Tillotson and the Allstars was exceptional. Earlier in the show Johnny mentioned how Elvis Presley called him to let him know that he had recorded ‘It keeps right on a hurtin’, which Johnny had written. Elvis mentioned he had changed some of the lyrics and Johnny responded that he would have been happy even if Elvis wanted to change the title. Then in appreciation of Elvis Presley he performed ‘His latest flame’, ‘All shook up’ and ‘Blue suede shoes’. This was followed by ‘Great balls of fire’. The venue was really moving along with Johnny Tillotson and the Allstars.

After taking a bow the audience reaction was such that an encore was mandatory. Johnny returned to the stage and presented a very warm and gentle rendition of ‘Can’t help falling in love’ Then to the music of ‘Poetry in motion’ the international hitmaker, Johnny Tillotson, took his final bow and gracefully left the stage. Many in the audience thronged to the table near the stage where Johnny was signing autographs, photographs, posters, CDs and DVDs. It took the best part of an hour for all people to be satisfied. For some people who had wanted to hear a particular song that was not in the show he sang it for them at the table without accompaniment.

This was quite moving to see and hear. Johnny Tillotson and the Allstars are a very formidable combination. These two shows were of a quality rarely seen these days and the large audiences at both clubs were extremely receptive to the show. The next time Johnny Tillotson performs near you make sure to be there, it is well worth the experience.

Special thanks to Steve Mander for assistance with the catalogue numbers and David McLean of Canetoad records for the chart positions.