| "Johnny Remember Me" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byJohn Leyton | ||||
| B-side | "There Must Be"(Bob Duke) | |||
| Released | July 1961(UK) | |||
| Recorded | RGM Sound: 1961 | |||
| Genre | Pop[1] | |||
| Label | EMITop Rank JAR577(UK) | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Geoff Goddard | |||
| Producer(s) | Joe Meek (R.G.M. Sound) | |||
| John Leyton singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Official audio | ||||
| "Johnny Remember Me" onYouTube | ||||
"Johnny Remember Me" is a song which became a 1961UK Singles Chart #1 hit single forJohn Leyton, backed byThe Outlaws.[2] It was producerJoe 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 pop charts, on both sides of the Atlantic, in the early to mid-1960s. It is distinguished in particular by its eerie, echoing sound (a hallmark of Meek's production style) and by the ghostly, foreboding female wails that form its backing vocal, by Lissa Gray. The recording was arranged byCharles Blackwell. Despite the line, "the girl I loved who died a year ago" being changed to the more vague "the girl I loved and lost a year ago", the song was banned by theBBC, along with many other 'death discs', which were popular at the time.[3]
The song was written and composed byGeoff Goddard who awoke inspired and sang it straight into thetape recorder which he kept by his bedside.[4]
At the time of the recording, John Leyton played a rock star called "Johnny Saint-Cyr" in the TV seriesHarpers West One. In an episode of the show Saint-Cyr performs the song, surrounded by adoring female fans. The television exposure caused the song to become instantly well known. After it was released, it rapidly rose to the number one spot.[5][6]
OnJuke Box Jury in 1961Spike Milligan dismissed it as "son of 'Ghost Riders in the Sky'", predicting, along with the others on the panel, that it would not be a hit.[7]
In 2012 the journalist Tom Ewing described the song as "the weirdest and most gripping British record to hit the top yet", with Leyton's vocal "clutching at your sleeve, desperate to tell a story of loss and madness. Meek turns the drums into phantom horsemen and fills the record's dark spaces with melodrama – a keening female voice on the chorus rounds the effect off."[8]
The song was covered in French in 1963 byLes Chats Sauvages - lead singer Mike Shannon - as "Johnny Rappelle-Toi".[citation needed][importance?]
Finnish versions have been recorded by many artists, includingTapio Rautavaara (1962),Olavi Virta (1962),Topi Sorsakoski (1985), andKari Tapio (1986).[9]
The song was covered in 1983 by singerJohn Spencer in Dutch, titled "Johnny, vergeet me niet".[10][11]
In 1985,Bronski Beat covered the song in a medley with "I Feel Love" and "Love to Love You Baby" in a collaboration withMarc Almond. Released as a single, it reached number 3 in the UK chart and earned Geoff Goddard aplatinum disc with sales over 300,000.[12]
It was also covered by the Swedish rockerLittle Gerhard and later byShowaddywaddy. In 1983, the British psychobilly bandThe Meteors released a version on their albumWrecking Crew, followed a couple of years later byDave Vanian and the Phantom Chords. It was the opening track on the 1993 albumSeasons in the Sun by Spell (Rose McDowall andBoyd Rice).
The creation and success of the song plays a significant role in the 2009 filmTelstar: The Joe Meek Story in which Goddard is portrayed byTom Burke and Leyton byCallum Dixon
In 2018, Freddie Dilevi released a cover of the song on the albumTeenager's Heartbreak, edited by Family Spree Recordings.[13][importance?]
...Meek found his calling by making strange, damaged pop songs like John Leyton's "Johnny Remember Me" andthe Honeycombs' "Have I the Right?"...
