Johnny Maddox
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| Johnny Maddox | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 4, 1927 Gallatin, Tennessee, United States |
| Occupation | ragtime pianist |
| Children | 4 boys |
| Parents | john sheppard maddox sr.& anna( pryor) maddox |
Johnny Maddox (born August 4, 1927 in Gallatin, Tennessee) is a ragtime pianist and collector of ragtime memorabilia.
His interest in the era of ragtime and blues was fueled by his Aunt Zula Cothron. She played ragtime piano at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, and taught Johnny to play. Johnny played his first public concert when he was only five and began his professional career at the age of twelve.
In 1950 Maddox worked with his friend, Randy Wood, at Randy’s Record Shop in Gallatin when Randy launched Dot Records. Maddox became the first artist to record for Dot Records, and his instant first success helped build the label into one of the most successful labels in the 1950s. His very first single "Crazy Bone Rag" with "St. Louis Tickle” on the flip side sold over 22,000 copies in five weeks. He continued to record for Dot through its acquisition by MCA into the 1970s. During his career with Dot and MCA, Johnny recorded 50 albums and 87 singles. From these he racked up nine gold records with total record sales of over 11,000,000.
In 1955 Maddox recorded "The Crazy Otto Medley," made up of pieces written by German comic performer Fritz Schulz-Reichel under the persona Otto der Schräge. It spent 14 weeks at #2 and became the first million-selling ragtime record, eventually selling more than two million copies. Crazy Otto soon became Maddox's nickname, as well as Schulz-Reichel's. In fact, the reference to Crazy Otto in the Grateful Dead song "Ramble on Rose" is a reference to Maddox.[1] Creedence Clearwater Revival also did a song called "Crazy Otto", although it is not known if this is a reference to Maddox.
Maddox still performs annual concerts in Durango, Colorado.
[edit] Trivia
- Upon hearing him play in 1952, W.C. Handy is reported to have called Maddox "the white boy with the colored fingers."
- Referenced in the Hoagy Carmichael composition "Crazy Otto Rag"
- In 1954, Maddox was voted America's Number One Jukebox Artist by the Music Operators Association.
- An avid collector of ragtime memorabilia, he has amassed a collection of over 30,000 records, wax cylinders, and piano rolls, as well as a sheet music collection of over 200,000 pieces, some 3,000 of which he claims to have committed to memory.
- Maddox has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- The flipside of "The Crazy Otto Medley," entitled "Eight Beat Boogie," is an updated arrangement of Tommy Dorsey's and Pinetop Smith's "Boogie Woogie," and became a popular disc jockey theme song used often up to the 1970s.
[edit] References
- ^ Hunter, Robert; Dodd, David G.; Barlow, John; Alan Trist, Grateful Dead (Musical group) (2005). The complete annotated Grateful Dead lyrics: the collected lyrics of Robert Hunter and John Barlow, lyrics to all original songs, with selected traditional and cover songs. Simon and Schuster. pp. 180–181. ISBN 9780743277471. http://books.google.com/books?id=UU1W67NPpb8C&pg=PA180. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
[edit] External links
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