| "Johnny Remember Me" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by John Leyton | ||||
| B-side | "There Must Be" (Bob Duke) | |||
| Released | July 1961 (UK) | |||
| Recorded | RGM Sound: 1961 | |||
| Genre | Pop[1] | |||
| Label | EMI Top Rank JAR577(UK) | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Geoff Goddard | |||
| Producer(s) | Joe Meek (R.G.M. Sound) | |||
| John Leyton singles chronology | ||||
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| Official audio | ||||
| "Johnny Remember Me" on YouTube | ||||
"Johnny Remember Me" is a song which became a 1961 UK Singles Chart #1 hit single for John Leyton, backed by The Outlaws.[2] It was producer Joe Meek's first #1 production. Recounting the haunting – real or imagined – of a young man by his dead lover, the song is one of the most noted of the 'death ditties' that populated the pop charts, on both sides of the Atlantic, in the early to mid-1960s. It is distinguished in particular by its eerie, echoing sound (a hallmark of Meek's production style) and by the ghostly, foreboding female wails that form its backing vocal, by Lissa Gray. The recording was arranged by Charles Blackwell. Despite the line, "the girl I loved who died a year ago" being changed to the more vague "the girl I loved and lost a year ago", the song was banned by the BBC, along with many other 'death discs', which were popular at the time.[3]
- ^ Breihan, Tom (9 May 2018). "The Number Ones: The Tornados' "Telstar"". Stereogum. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
...Meek found his calling by making strange, damaged pop songs like John Leyton's "Johnny Remember Me" and the Honeycombs' "Have I the Right?"...
- ^ "The Life of a Song: 'Johnny Remember Me'". Financial Times. 4 December 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
- ^ "16 songs banned by the BBC". BBC. Retrieved 9 August 2014.