Johnny Tillotson
| Johnny Tillotson | |
|---|---|
Tillotson, c. 1965
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| Background information | |
| Born |
April 20, 1939 Jacksonville, Florida, United States |
| Genres | country, pop |
| Occupation(s) | singer, songwriter |
| Years active | 1957 - Present |
| Labels | Cadence, London, Apex, MGM |
| Website | [4], [5] |
Johnny Tillotson (born April 20, 1939 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American singer and songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-ten hits on the pop, country and adult contemporary Billboard charts including "Poetry in Motion" and the self-penned "It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin'". He also sang "Yellow Bird", an adaptation of the Haitian song.
Johnny is the son of Doris and Jack Tillotson, who owned a small service station on the corner of 6th and Pearl in Jacksonville, and acted as the station's mechanic. At the age of nine, Johnny was sent to Palatka, Florida, to take care of his grandmother. He returned to Jacksonville each summer to be with his parents when his brother Dan would go to his grandmother. Johnny began to perform at local functions as a child, and by the time he was at Palatka Senior High School he had developed a reputation as a talented singer. Tillotson became a semi-regular on TV-4's McDuff Hayride, hosted by Toby Dowdy, and soon landed his own show on TV-12 WFGA-TV. In 1957, while Tillotson was studying at the University of Florida, local disc jockey Bob Norris sent a tape of Johnny's singing to the Pet Milk talent contest, and was chosen as one of six National finalists. This gave Johnny the opportunity to perform in Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM the Grand Ole Opry, which led Lee Rosenberg, a Nashville publisher, to take a tape to Archie Bleyer, owner of the independent Cadence Records. Bleyer signed Tillotson to a three-year contract, and issued his first single, "Dreamy Eyes" / "Well I'm Your Man" in September 1958. Both songs were written by Tillotson, and both made the Billboard Hot 100, "Dreamy Eyes" peaking at # 63. After graduating in 1959 with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and Communications, Tillotson moved to New York City to pursue his music career.
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