Joan's 78s Volume 3 - Johnny Has Gone

     Record 1 - Savoy 1153A

01. Johnny Has Gone - Varetta Dillard

      Record 2 - OKeh 6910A

02. My Song - Hadda Brooks

Record 3 - Duke 107

03. Cross My Heart - Johnny Ace
04. Angel - Johnny Ace

Record 4 - Duke 118

05. Saving My Love For You - Johnny Ace
06. Yes, Baby - Johnny Ace (with Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton)

Record 5 - Duke 144

07. How Can You Be So Mean - Johnny Ace
08. Anymore - Johnny Ace

Record 6 - Duke 148

09. So Lonely - Johnny Ace
10. I'm Crazy Baby - Johnny Ace

Record 7 - Hollywood 1031

11. Why Johnny Why? - Linda Hayes (with Johnny Moore's Blazers)
12. Johnny Ace's Last Letter - Johnny Moore's Blazers with Frankie Ervin

 Joan's 78s Volume 3 (Mega)

Joan's 78s Volume 3 (Zippy)

A Johnny Ace Special Edition of "Joan's 78s." I couldn't resist doing this when I found not only rips of 4 Johnny Ace singles in Joan's files, but also a couple of "tribute" discs which were issued in the wake of Johnny's unfortunate demise as a result of accidentally shooting himself through the head backstage at the Houston City Auditorium during the interval of a Christmas Day concert / dance in 1954. And accident it was. It wasn't an organised crime hit or a jealous husband or suicide, but simply an act of monumental stupidity. I actually get angry whenever I re-read accounts of the incident for never was so much thrown away for so little.

Johnny's greatest and mostly posthumous hit "Pledging My Love" isn't here and neither is the hit which launched his career, "My Song", but Joan has provided an excellent cover version of the latter by Hadda Brooks.

Two of the rips, "So Lonely" / "I'm Crazy Baby", were pretty rough with volume fading out and in and although I tried several times to coax decent sound from the files, the results are noticeably inferior to the other cuts on this collection. I like to think that they are still listenable and therefore decided to include them.

Shellac Lowdown

Savoy 1153 - Varetta Dillard - Johnny Has Gone / So Many Ways - released February 1955.

OKeh 6190 - Hadda Brooks - I Went To Your Wedding / My Song - released September 1952.

Duke 107 - Johnny Ace - Cross My Heart / Angel - released January 1953.

Duke 118 - Johnny Ace - Saving My Love For You / Yes, Baby - released December 1953.

Duke 144 - Johnny Ace - Anymore / How Can You Be So Mean - released July 1955.

Duke 148 - Johnny Ace - I'm Crazy Baby / So Lonely - released January 1956.

Hollywood 1031 - Johnny Moore's Blazers - Why Johnny Why (vocal - Linda Hayes) / Johnny Ace's Last Letter (vocal - Frankie Ervin) - released February 1955.

Label scans from discogs.com, 45cat.com, YouTube and the Johnny Ace Webpage on the Vocal Group Harmony site.

Thanks again to Joan for providing the sounds. Stay tuned and hear more of the late, great Johnny Ace in Be Bop Wino's next post.