Johnny Cool by Little Peggy March

Album: I Will Follow Him (1963)

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Songfacts®:

Johnny Cool is the guy in school who makes all the girls swoon. He's the brooding silent type, which gives him an air of mystery, but Little Peggy March knows his secret: he has a tender heart. She knows because she's his girl.
Peggy March is best known for her #1 hit "I Will Follow Him," released in 1963 when she was just 14. She was 15 when she released the full album I Will Follow Him, which includes "Johnny Cool." A song about a high-school romance was fitting for her to sing.
The songwriters are Mark Barkan and Miriam Lewis. Barkan also co-wrote some hits for Lesley Gore, including "That's The Way Boys Are" and "She's A Fool." Lewis wrote "Tears And Laughter," recorded by Dinah Washington.
"Johnny" was a catch-all name for the all-American boy in many songs of this era. There are also "Johnny Angel" and "Johnny B. Goode."

Comments: 1

Wisdom from PaYou cannot lift cultural things such as music out of the time period they were from and try to use a modern mindset to judge with. If a piece of modern music could have been played to the people back then, they would have thought of it as nothing bur useless yelling, screaming and noise. You cannot make a sound judgement on how people of the time, with that entirely different mindset, would view music being made in their own time period. No, she was not very popular in her own time, but to ridicule the lyrics she was using when they were the same kind of lyrics many artists of the time were using is lifting this specific song out of its context making the evaluation totally invalid. And back then the style of a lot of singers was pretty much the same as hers was as well. These were people trying to make a living by attempting to go with the flow of the times they lived in and give them the sounds the masses wanted. Out of the tons of people who attempted to make popular music and become famous enough to have their name remembered, at least she got that far. Thus it shows the people of the time were wanting what she was providing, just not as much as other artists of her time period. How many thousands per each name that is remembered, will never be known b/c they couldn't make it as far as people like her did?

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