Buddy Johnson

Life and career

Woodrow Wilson "Buddy" Johnson entered the world on January 10, 1915, in Darlington, South Carolina. Childhood piano lessons sparked a lasting love for classical music. He relocated to New York City in 1938, and the next year traveled to Europe as part of the Cotton Club Revue, where authorities in Nazi Germany expelled him. That same year, 1939, he made his first recordings for Decca Records with his own band, and his sister Ella soon joined as the group's vocalist.

By 1941, Johnson had built a nine-piece orchestra, which began churning out hits on both the R&B and pop charts. Among them were "Let's Beat Out Some Love," which reached No. 2 on the R&B chart in 1943 with Johnson singing lead; "Baby Don't You Cry," a No. 3 R&B hit in 1943 featuring Warren Evans; his most successful record, "When My Man Comes Home," which hit No. 1 R&B and No. 18 pop in 1944 with Ella Johnson on vocals; and "They All Say I'm The Biggest Fool," a No. 5 R&B entry in 1946 sung by Arthur Prysock.

Ella Johnson cut her own version of "Since I Fell for You" in 1945, but the song didn't become a major success until Lenny Welch revived it in the early 1960s. In 1946, Johnson wrote a Blues Concerto and performed it at Carnegie Hall two years later. His orchestra remained a popular touring act through the late 1940s and early 1950s, and he kept recording jump blues for Mercury, with tracks like "Hittin' on Me" and "I'm Just Your Fool." The song "Bring It Home to Me" later appeared on the 1996 compilation Jump Shot from Rocket Sixty-Nine.

"Personally, I like classics," Johnson told Down Beat, "but our bread and butter is in the south. The music I play has a southern tinge to it. They understand it down there." He died in New York on February 9, 1977, at age 62, from a brain tumor and sickle cell anemia.