Saturday, March 05, 2011

Johnny Preston, 1939-2011


Johnny Preston had one of the great pop novelty hits of the late 1950s-early '60s in "Running Bear" (thanks to rameyblue for the clip), which was written by J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, who, along with Bill Hall and (yes!) George Jones, did the whoops and toomba-toombas that accompany Preston's vocal. The Bopper died in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens before the song became a hit. Yesterday, Johnny Preston went to join Running Bear and Little White Dove "in that Happy Hunting Ground".

Thanks to FB friend Georgene Z. Russell for the tip.

1 comment:

  1. johnny preston bridged the gap between main line pop adding a
    touch of rockabilly attitude to
    one of the greatest novelty
    rocord of all time. Vrey sad to
    hear this bad news.

    But take a look ant what is now available on You Tube...

    Hundreds of vintage Rockabilly, R&B and Surf clips

    Hey, there now a LOT of LINK WRAY
    clips on you tube...amazing ultra
    great material from the absolute
    SEGOVIA of rock....

    ReplyDelete