Johnny Stark
It has hit the geezer’s ears that a friend and fellow musician Johnny Stark has played his final show.
Johnny was born in Fairview, New Jersey on Febuary 19, 1937. From the earliest age he always wanted to be a singer. Starting his training in opera at a young age. When Johnny was 17 he joined the Air-force and served his term and went back to New Jersey, got a factory job temporarily then he decided he wanted to head out west with friends who worked with him at the factory and they drove to Hollywood in 1956, which was the heyday of Hollywood for singers and actors.
Then Johnny switched to the big band sound. At 19 he moved to Hollywood and started up with the Rock'n'Roll scene. Johnny's first record was "So Lovable", at the age of 20. He recorded a Hit chart 45 record of "Rockin' Billy," which he performed on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Johnny had one of those very rare voices and had a remarkable fresh style of singing and sparked the interest of several different record labels. He finally landed on Chrysalette Records.
After Johnny appeared on American Bandstand, Johnny met Mark Traversino at a club in Southgate, California, where he was appearing with his Band. Johnny jammed with Mark and his Band. Johnny's voice blew Mark away and he told Johnny to look him up in a couple of months, because he would be opening up his own night club, called "The Samba". Johnny worked at that club for about a year. He then went on to perform the circuit of night clubs in the Los Angeles area. Johnny continued his professional relationship with Mark for many years. They worked and wrote many songs together. Mark is Johnny's best friend to this day. Johnny toured all over the U.S. doing local T.V. Shows including Louisiana Hayride, which Elvis also performed on before Johnny. He also opened for Gene Vincent on his show, singing "Rockin' Billy" with Elvis's former Band, The Bill Black Combo. Johnny also worked with Eddy Cochran and Ritchie Valens. Johnny had mixed with the elite crowd of people through the Hollywood years, even signing a movie deal to appear in a film called Johnny Reb”. Unfortunately, the movie fell through. A second shot for him to be a film star with American international and was interviewed by Charlie Wilson but Johnny turned it down do personal reasons.
Through the years, Johnny recorded for Crystalette and Luna Records. He went on to tour throughout the U.S. and Canada with many of the Top Pop Rock Stars, such as Connie Francis, Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka. Returning to Hollywood, he worked clubs all over L.A., from Beverly Hills to the famous Sunset Strip. Then his career led him back to NY, to work the well-known nightclubs: The Copacabana, El Morocco and the Latin Quarter. He also performed at the Apollo Theater, to standing ovations. Very few singing artists could make the crossover from pop music to Rock'n'Roll and R&B like Johnny could do. When Johnny was offered the chance to perform at the Hollywood Palladium, he went back in the studio and recorded "Good, Good, Woman" and "I Don't Need No Doctor" for Gene Norman's Crescendo Records. Johnny was given the opportunity to replace the lead singer of two bands including Blood Sweat and Tears and The Rascals yet lost the jobs when the singers returned to their respective bands.
He stayed in the L.A. Area, where he was in great demand at all the popular hot spots in town. Major Hotel Casinos in Las Vegas, Tahoe and Reno soon beckoned Johnny to come and perform for his loving fans. In 1975 he did a recording of the James Brown song, “I Feel Good" with the Tonight Show Band led by Tommy Neusom.
Johnny was never not singing or recording for various record labels or singing in clubs etc. He was truly a great entertainer, who never gave up his passion or the love of music. Johnny had re-located to Las Vegas in 2021 and was planning to do more recordings and live performances when he passed away due to complications of a stroke.
I met Johnny and his singing partner Sheri Livingston (herself a recorded and charting singer) when I was in a local band. We were doing a show at the grand opening of a restaurant and the two of them wandered in. During a break in the action, they wandered over and asked me if they could sit in for a couple of songs. The rest of the band was OK, so they did Some Kind of Woman, and a blues thing in “G”.
A couple of months later, I had left that band (and, THAT, my friends is another story worth hearing), and wandered into another venue to watch a friend’s band, Who happened to be there, but Sheri and Johnny having dinner. We sat there talking for a bit and when they found out I was no longer playing out, they informed me they had a tour coming up and were trying to put a band together. They asked if I wanted to be the bassist. Having nothing else to do, and figuring a tour would be kinda fun, I agreed. The tour never seemed to materialize, regardless of what connections they had or what promises they had, but they kept talking about this tour.
My favorite memory of Johnny was when he and Sheri and I sat down to write a song together. He had lyrics that he wanted to put to music. I took my acoustic guitar and started screwing around with a riff I had been working on. We tried to get it to work, but it just never did. The day we were to go into the studio to record it, I showed up early to show them some new music that I felt would work better for the song. johnny informed me that the music had already been written, and that Sherri’s mother gave them a chord structure they liked. Cancelled: One writing credit. Oh well.
We got to the studio with a drummer I got along with (hugely important for a bassist) and a guitar player that did pretty well. While we were in the studio, the drummer and I kinda took over production duties with no credit, of course… but that wasn’t the story. We were hired as musicians, and that’s what happens. At the end of the session, we had finished a track that we were (mostly) proud of. Of course, like any other artist, Johnny just couldn’t accept that it was a really good track and that it was ready to release. He and Sheri paid for another studio to add keyboards and strings and everything else. It’s a good thing that I understand I was a hired gun, and what they did with my bassline was none of my business.
After that session, we stayed friends, and I was stopping down to their house once a week or so, but we never really did any more music. They tried an online radio station for a while, and I was on to promote my new band’s recently released CD, but that was about the only thing we did musically, except for my short stint as their manager (another story).
Well, Johnny, I thank you for the music, the conversations, the stories about the “old days”, and the friendship. Hopefully, I’ll see you again when I get there.
Here is the track we did. I invite everyone to take a listen and to find other songs by Johnny Stark and Sheri Livingston.
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