John Leyton

This article is about singer and actor John Leyton; for the football player of the same sound, see John Leighton

John Leyton - Johnny Remember Me

John Dudley Leyton (born February 17, 1939 in Frinton-on-Sea , Essex ) is an English singer and actor .

Career as a singer

Leyton took acting classes after completing his service; He got his first major role in 1960 in a production by Granada TV , which made his face known and especially popular with young girls. This led to the fact that music producer Joe Meek invited him to the vocal rehearsal; This resulted in a single record of the Ray Peterson song Tell Laura I Love Her on the small top-rank label. Since this was taken over by EMI immediately afterwards and the parent company had just released the song in a version by Ricky Valance on the British market, which should then promptly bring it to number 1 in the charts, they withdrew John Leyton's record. A second 45 , The Girl on the Floor Above (released on the HMV label ), did not bring the singing actor any success.

But that hit with his third record all the more: Johnny Remember Me reached number 1 in the UK Singles Charts in August 1961 and stayed at the top for a total of four weeks. He also sang this song on the popular ATV television series Harpers West One , where he played a singer named Johnny Saint Cyr, which undoubtedly helped spread the title. Johnny Remember Me is a peculiar ballad in which Leyton sings to a brisk, country- like rhythm about his love for a deceased woman, who answers him as a chorus with an "angelic" soprano in very spherical sounds with the title line.
The musically very similar follow- up record Wild Wind also made it to number 2 in Great Britain; his subsequent releases reached some middle chart positions, but could no longer keep up with these two hits.

Acting career

But John Leyton made a name for himself as a film actor , also in the USA. He has appeared in Broken Chains (alongside Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough ; 1963), Shots in Batasi (again with Attenborough and Mia Farrow ; 1964), and Colonel of Ryan's Express (alongside Frank Sinatra ; 1965). In 1969 he appeared again in a box filler ( Krakatoa - The greatest adventure of the last century , also listed under the title Volcano ).

In the 1970s, however, his engagements became increasingly rare, and the attempt to regain a foothold as a singer with new records failed in 1973. That's why he retired from show business for around a decade and a half.

comeback

At the end of the 1990s, the singer was suddenly in demand again in the course of the "Oldie Revivals" and returned to the concert stage, including the Solid Gold Rock 'n' Roll Show , where he worked with Marty Wilde and Joe Brown , later ( 2004) for example with Showaddywaddy , Freddy Cannon and Craig Douglas .

He also got back smaller roles in films, most recently in the 2005 wacky Color Me Kubrick alongside John Malkovich . In May 2006, John Leyton published ahead of the World Cup , a single entitled Hi Ho Come on England (to the tune of Jeff Beck Hi Ho Silver Lining ), which remained similar success at the cash registers but as sung in football in the German stadiums.

Discography

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

Johnny Remember Me   UK 1 08/09/1961 (15 weeks) Wild wind   UK 2 10/11/1961 (10 weeks) Son, This Is She   UK 15th 03/01/1962 (10 weeks) Lone rider   UK 40 03/21/1962 (5 weeks) Lonely City   UK 14th 05/09/1962 (11 weeks) Down the River Nile   UK 42 08/29/1962 (3 weeks) Cupboard Love   UK 22nd 02/27/1963 (12 weeks) I'll Cut Your Tail Off   UK 36 07/24/1963 (3 weeks) Make Love to Me (John Leyton & the LeRoys)   UK 49 02/26/1964 (1 week)

Original LPs

• The Two Sides of John Leyton (1961)
• Always Yours (1963)
• John Leyton (1973)

Singles (without re-releases)

• 1960
  • Tell Laura I Love Her / Goodbye to Teenage Love
  • The Girl on the Floor Above / Terry Brown's in Love With Mary Dee
• 1961
  • Johnny Remember Me / There Must Be
  • Wild Wind / You Took My Love for Granted
• 1962
  • Son, This Is She / Six White Horses
  • Lone Rider / Heart of Stone
  • Lonely City / It Would Be Easy
  • Down the River Nile / I Think I'm Falling in Love
  • Lonely Johnny / Keep On Loving You
• 1963
  • Cupboard Love / Land of Love
  • I'll Cut Your Tail Off / The Great Escape
  • On Lovers Hill / Lovers Lane
  • Beautiful Dreamer / I Guess You Are Always on My Mind
  • One can only be mine (The Great Escape March) / Once is never (I'll Cut Your Tail Off) (in Germany)
• 1964
  • Make Love to Me / Missing You
  • Don't Let Her Go Away / I Want a Love I Can See
  • All I Want Is You / Every Day's a Holiday
• 1973
  • Dancing in the Graveyard / Riversong
• 1974
  • Rock 'n' Roll / Highway song
• 1994
  • Think We're Talkin 'Love Here / What Happened (to the Song of My Life)
• 2002
  • Come On England / Jerusalem
• 2006
  • Hi Ho Come On England

literature

• Sprengte Ketten - The Great Escape, Behind the scenes , Photographs of cameraman Walter Riml, Editor Helma Türk & Christian Riml, House Publishing 2013, English / German ( Online ).

Web links

• John Leyton in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official John Leyton website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johnny Remember Me ( English ) In: Official Charts . Retrieved December 14, 2016.
2. ↑ Charts UK