Johnny Nash

John Lester "Johnny" Nash, Jr. (born August 19, 1940) is an American reggae singer-songwriter, best known in the US for his 1972 comeback hit, "I Can See Clearly Now". He was also one of the first non-Jamaican singers to record reggae music in Kingston, Jamaica.

Life and musical career

Born John Lester Nash, Jr. in Houston, Texas, he began as a pop singer in the 1950s. He released four albums for ABC-Paramount, with his self named debut in 1958. Around 20 singles were released between 1958 & 1964 on a variety of labels such as Groove, Chess, Argo and Warners. He also enjoyed success as an actor early in his career appearing in the screen version of playwright Louis S. Peterson's Take a Giant Step. Nash won a Silver Sail Award for his performance from the Locarno International Film Festival.

In 1965, Johnny Nash and Danny Sims formed the JODA Records label in New York. One of the more interesting signings was four brothers from Newport, Rhode Island, ages 9, 11, 15 and 16, called The Cowsills, before signing with Mercury/Philips with Shelby Singleton, before MGM and their first million selling hit single, "The Rain, The Park & Other Things". The Cowsills went into the studio in New York with studio musicians and recorded a number of songs like "Either You Do Or You Don't" and "You Can't Go Halfway". Eventually The Cowsills would write and record their own song, "All I Really Wanta Be Is Me", which became the group's debut single release on JODA (J-103).

John Nash

John Nash may refer to:

Tears on My Pillow (Johnny Nash song)

"Tears on My Pillow" was a popular song for Johnny Nash.

Written by Ernie Smith and produced by Johnny Nash, "Tears on My Pillow" was the sole number-one single in the UK Singles Chart for Nash, spending a single week at the top of the charts in July 1975. New Zealand act The Parker Project,covered this song in 1991, reaching No. 1 on the New Zealand charts in June of that year.

References

Tears on My Pillow

"Tears on My Pillow" is a doo-wop song written by Sylvester Bradford and Al Lewis in 1958. The composition was first recorded by Little Anthony and the Imperials on End Records and was that group's debut recording under that name. Their original recording of the song became a Billboard Top 10 Pop smash, peaking at #4, and was The Imperials' first million-seller. It was also a two-sided hit, with its flip side, "Two People in the World," also becoming a major hit. Although it remains one of the Imperials' signature songs, "Tears on My Pillow" has been extensively covered, including a No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart version by Kylie Minogue in January 1990.

The Imperials' Original version

Early copies of the single were credited simply to "The Imperials," a group which had previously been known as "The Duponts" and "The Chesters." Brooklyn, New York deejay Alan Freed gave the group's lead singer, Anthony Gourdine, top billing while introducing the single over the air and the moniker of "Little Anthony and the Imperials" stuck.

Tears on My Pillow (album)

Tears on My Pillow was Johnny Tillotson's first album in two years, released by Amos Records.

The title track, a cover version of Little Anthony and the Imperials' 1958 doo-wop hit, was released as a single the same year of the album's release; neither the single nor the album charted. The album is mainly a collection of covers, including versions of Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again," Carole King & Gerry Goffin's "Hey Girl," Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)," and Buddy Holly's "Raining in My Heart."

Track listing

Side 1

Side 2

Sources