Johnny Bode

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Johnny Bode
Johnny Bode (1912–83) at the beginning of his musical career. Photo from the Swedish magazine Charme 1931.
Background information
Born	(1912-01-06)6 January 1912 Falköping, Sweden
Died	25 July 1983(1983-07-25) (aged 71) Malmö, Sweden
Genres	popular music
Occupation(s)	composer, singer

Johnny Bode (6 January 1912 – 25 July 1983) was a Swedish singer, and composer.

After his debut at seventeen years old, Bode recorded hundreds of songs on the gramophone, many of them his own compositions. One of his best-known songs is "En herre i frack" (A Gentleman in Tailcoat), which Gösta Ekman senior sang in 1936. The song later become popularized by famous Swedish singer Jan Malmsjö, who added it to his repertoire. The last gramophone record with Johnny Bode as a singer was recorded in 1942. Bode rebuilt his career several times across his life after numerous setbacks.

Bode lived a more extravagant lifestyle than he was able to afford, was known to fail to pay his debts, and was blacklisted by several Stockholm restaurants. He developed a close friendship with Gösta Ekman, until Ekman discovered that Bode had tried to sell their silverware set to a pawnbroker. Bode was also known to write bad checks.

After being convicted of fraud, he was declared incapable, and put into psychiatric care in the mental hospital of St. Sigfrid in Växjö, Sweden. In connection with the diagnosis, he was sterilized.