![]() Ray never disappeared and continued to perform until 1989. even as he remained popular in other countries. Below is Johnnie Ray’s version.īut as rock and roll took off in the late 1950s, Ray’s popularity declined in the U.S. Some, like Tony Bennett, have credited Ray’s work to being an important precursor to rock and roll.īob Dylan once noted that Ray was the “first singer whose voice and style I totally fell in love with.” Ringo Starr explained that in the early days, he and the other Beatles listened to “Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Johnnie Ray.” The Rolling Stones’s Bill Wyman, among others, has commented how Ray opened up his ears even before Elvis Presley began recording.Īnd when Elvis Presley got out of the army, he covered a song he knew from Ray, “Such a Night.” Elvis’s version appeared on his 1960 album Elvis is Back. He rose to stardom as a singer in the early 1950s. Johnnie Ray, who passed away on February 24, 1990, was born in Oregon on January 10, 1927. ![]() But by the 1980s, when these songs were released, and today, many ask, “Who was poor old Johnnie Ray?” Who Was Johnnie Ray? ![]() ![]() During the period they evoke, Johnnie Ray was a big star. In each of the songs, the songwriters refer to Johnnie Ray in the context of remembering their childhoods. So does the first line of Billy Joel’s 1989 song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (“Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray.”). The opening of the 1982-1983 hit song “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners mentions a person named Johnnie Ray. ![]()
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