Johnny Remember Me
| "Johnny Remember Me" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by John Leyton | ||||
| B-side | "There Must Be" (Bob Duke) | |||
| Released | July 1961 (UK) | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | RGM Sound: 1961 | |||
| Genre | Pop music | |||
| Label | EMI Top Rank JAR577(UK) | |||
| Writer(s) | Geoff Goddard | |||
| Producer | Joe Meek (R.G.M. Sound) | |||
| John Leyton singles chronology | ||||
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"Johnny Remember Me" is a song which became a 1961 UK #1 hit single for John Leyton, backed by The Outlaws. It was producer Joe Meek's first #1 production. Recounting the haunting - real or imagined - of a young man by his dead lover, the song is one of the most noted of the 'death ditties' that populated the transatlantic pop charts in the early to mid 1960s. It is distinguished in particular by its eerie, echoing sound (a hallmark of the Joe Meek production style) and by the ghostly, foreboding female wails that form its backing vocal (by Lissa Gray). The recording was arranged by Charles Blackwell.
The song was composed by Geoff Goddard who awoke inspired and sang it straight into the tape recorder which he kept by his bedside.[1]
In 1985 Bronski Beat covered the song in a medley with I Feel Love and Love to Love You Baby in a collaboration with Marc Almond. Released as a single, it reached number 3 and earned Geoff Goddard a platinum disc with sales over 300,000.[2]
It was also covered in 1983 by British psychobilly band the Meteors and a couple of years later by Dave Vanian and his band the Phantom Chords.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ Gordon Thompson (2008), Please Please Me, p. 78, ISBN 9780195333183, http://books.google.com/?id=IcFBLtl7sq8C&pg=PA78
- ^ Obituary - Geoff Goddard, 25 May 2000, The Guardian. Retrieved on 16 June 2009.
| Preceded by "You Don't Know" by Helen Shapiro |
UK number one single "Johnny Remember Me" August 31, 1961 (4 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Reach for the Stars"/"Climb Ev'ry Mountain" by Shirley Bassey |
| Preceded by "Reach For The Stars/Climb Every Mountain" by Shirley Bassey |
UK number one single "Johnny Remember Me" September 28, 1961 (top again for 1 week) |
Succeeded by "Kon-Tiki" by The Shadows |
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