Who was/is Chuck Johnston ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Pittsburgh was prime stomping grounds for Chuck Johnston and The Jaycees, who started out on the Willett label of McKeesport, Pennsylvania (near the Steel City) in 1959. Johnston reached out to an unlikely but very successful composer for Sweet Baby and Stop! Baby, the two rockers comprising his Willett 45: Pat Ballard, 60 years old at the time. Brunswick picked up the single for national consumption, dropping the exclamation point from Stop Baby.
Johnston and The Jaycees’ next platter for Pittsburgh’s Calico Records, home to The Skyliners’ immortal ’58 smash Since I Don’t Have You (Calico listed his name as Johnson), was a veritable Ballard greatest hits coupling. On one side sat Chuck’s slowed-down treatment of the Ballard-penned Mr. Sandman, a 1954 blockbuster for The Chordettes. On the other was an update of Pat’s Oh Baby Mine, a major hit for The Four Knights in ‘54. Johnston and The Jaycees popped up again in 1964 on another Pittsburgh label, Gateway Records, with a remake of Lead Belly’s immortal Goodnight Irene produced by Elmer Willet—thus bringing Chuck full circle.
© Bear Family Records
Copyright © Bear Family Records®. Copying, also of extracts, or any other form of reproduction, including the adaptation into electronic data bases and copying onto any data mediums, in English or in any other language is permissible only and exclusively with the written consent of Bear Family Records® GmbH.