Johnny Heartsman
Encyclopedia
Johnny Heartsman was an American
electric blues
and soul blues
musician and songwriter. Heartsman showed musical diversity, playing a number of musical instruments, including the electric organ
and flute
. His distinctive guitar
playing appeared on a number of 1950s and 1960s San Francisco Bay Area
recordings, and he was still playing up to the time of his death.
His best known recording, "Johnny's House Party", was a R&B hit in 1957. His other better known tracks were "Paint My Mailbox Blue" and "Heartburn". He variously worked with Jimmy McCracklin
, Sugar Pie DeSanto
, Big Mama Thornton
, Ray Agee, Jimmy Wilson, Johnny Fuller, Al King, Tiny Powell and Joe Simon
. He is not to be confused with the American jazz
singer, Johnny Hartman
.
, United States
. Originally influenced by Lafayette Thomas
, in his teenage years Heartsman started operating as a session musician
, in the studio
with local record producer
, Bob Geddins. One of his earliest involvements was playing the bass guitar
for the 1953 recording of "Tin Pan Alley" by Jimmy Wilson. His own efforts yielded the instrumental
track, "Johnny's House Party (Parts 1 & 2)" on the Music City label
, which reached number 13 on the US
Billboard
R&B
chart
in June 1957. The record
billed the act as 'John Heartsman, the Rhythm Rocker and the Gaylarks'.
His session work continued into the early 1960s, and he played on Tiny Powell's "My Time After Awhile", and Al King's cover version
of "Reconsider Baby
". Heartman's guitar playing technique involved imaginative use of the guitar's volume control, producing "an eerie moan". Heartsman's later work included playing in show bands, appearing in concert in cocktail lounge
settings, and as the touring organist for Joe Simon
. By the late 1980s, Heartsman had reverted back to playing the blues, and he released his debut album
, Sacramento, in 1987. It was described by one reviewer as "a great success". He had previously appeared at the San Francisco Blues Festival
in 1985. The record producer, Dick Shurman, oversaw Heartsman's The Touch, released by Alligator Records
in 1991.
Over the years, Heartsman's songwriting ability saw him pen tracks for Jesse James ("Are You Gonna Leave Me"), Roy Buchanan
("Goose Grease"), John Hammond, Jr.
(Got to Find My Baby"), Amos Garrett
("Move On Down The Line"), and several more for Joe Simon.
He continued his varied career before succumbing to the effects of a stroke
in Sacramento, California
, in December 1996, at the age of 59.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
electric blues
Electric blues
Electric blues is a type of blues music distinguished by the amplification of the guitar, bass guitar, drums, and often the harmonica. Pioneered in the 1930s, it emerged as a genre in Chicago in the 1940s. It was taken up in many areas of America leading to the development of regional subgenres...
and soul blues
Soul blues
Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that combines elements of soul music and urban contemporary music...
musician and songwriter. Heartsman showed musical diversity, playing a number of musical instruments, including the electric organ
Electric organ
In biology, the electric organ is an organ common to all electric fish used for the purposes of creating an electric field. The electric organ is derived from modified nerve or muscle tissue...
and flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
. His distinctive guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
playing appeared on a number of 1950s and 1960s San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
recordings, and he was still playing up to the time of his death.
His best known recording, "Johnny's House Party", was a R&B hit in 1957. His other better known tracks were "Paint My Mailbox Blue" and "Heartburn". He variously worked with Jimmy McCracklin
Jimmy McCracklin
Jimmy McCracklin is an American pianist, vocalist, and songwriter. His style contains West Coast blues, Jump blues, and R&B. Over a career that has spanned seven decades, he says he has written almost a thousand songs and has recorded hundreds of them...
, Sugar Pie DeSanto
Sugar Pie DeSanto
Sugar Pie DeSanto is an American rhythm and blues singer of the 1950s and 1960s.-Early life:...
, Big Mama Thornton
Big Mama Thornton
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million...
, Ray Agee, Jimmy Wilson, Johnny Fuller, Al King, Tiny Powell and Joe Simon
Joe Simon (musician)
Joe Simon is an American chart-topping, Grammy Award winning, soul and R&B musician. Amongst other chart singles, Simon secured three number one hits on the US Billboard R&B chart between 1969 and 1975.-Career:...
. He is not to be confused with the American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singer, Johnny Hartman
Johnny Hartman
John Maurice Hartman was an American bass jazz singer who specialized in ballads and earned critical acclaim, though he was never widely known. He recorded a well-known collaboration with the saxophonist John Coltrane in 1963 called John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, and was briefly a member of...
.
Biography
Heartsman was born in San Fernando, CaliforniaSan Fernando, California
San Fernando is a city located in the San Fernando Valley, in northwestern region of Los Angeles, California, United States. The population was 23,645 at the 2010 census, up from 23,564 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Originally influenced by Lafayette Thomas
Lafayette Thomas
Lafayette Thomas was an American blues singer, and guitarist.-Career:Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Thomas first heard blues guitar from his uncle Jesse Thomas, but Lafayette Thomas did not play professionally until 1947, in San Francisco, California.The bulk of his recordings were with Jimmy...
, in his teenage years Heartsman started operating as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, in the studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
with local record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, Bob Geddins. One of his earliest involvements was playing the bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
for the 1953 recording of "Tin Pan Alley" by Jimmy Wilson. His own efforts yielded the instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
track, "Johnny's House Party (Parts 1 & 2)" on the Music City label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, which reached number 13 on the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
R&B
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
in June 1957. The record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
billed the act as 'John Heartsman, the Rhythm Rocker and the Gaylarks'.
His session work continued into the early 1960s, and he played on Tiny Powell's "My Time After Awhile", and Al King's cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of "Reconsider Baby
Reconsider Baby
"Reconsider Baby" is a blues song written and recorded by Lowell Fulson in 1954. Performed in the West Coast blues style, it became Fulson's first record chart hit for Checker Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records...
". Heartman's guitar playing technique involved imaginative use of the guitar's volume control, producing "an eerie moan". Heartsman's later work included playing in show bands, appearing in concert in cocktail lounge
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
settings, and as the touring organist for Joe Simon
Joe Simon (musician)
Joe Simon is an American chart-topping, Grammy Award winning, soul and R&B musician. Amongst other chart singles, Simon secured three number one hits on the US Billboard R&B chart between 1969 and 1975.-Career:...
. By the late 1980s, Heartsman had reverted back to playing the blues, and he released his debut album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Sacramento, in 1987. It was described by one reviewer as "a great success". He had previously appeared at the San Francisco Blues Festival
San Francisco Blues Festival
Debuting in 1973, the San Francisco Blues Festival is the longest running blues festival in the United States. Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the blues festival to educate the public about the history and evolution of the blues...
in 1985. The record producer, Dick Shurman, oversaw Heartsman's The Touch, released by Alligator Records
Alligator Records
Alligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record...
in 1991.
Over the years, Heartsman's songwriting ability saw him pen tracks for Jesse James ("Are You Gonna Leave Me"), Roy Buchanan
Roy Buchanan
Roy Buchanan was an American guitarist and blues musician. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan was a sideman and solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career, and two later solo albums that made it on to the Billboard chart. Despite never having achieved stardom, he is still...
("Goose Grease"), John Hammond, Jr.
John P. Hammond
John Paul Hammond is an American blues singer and guitarist. The son of record producer John H. Hammond, he is sometimes referred to as "John Hammond, Jr.".-Background:...
(Got to Find My Baby"), Amos Garrett
Amos Garrett
Amos Garrett is a Juno Award-winning American-Canadian musician, performer, and author. He holds dual citizenship and was raised in Toronto and Montreal...
("Move On Down The Line"), and several more for Joe Simon.
He continued his varied career before succumbing to the effects of a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
in Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, in December 1996, at the age of 59.
Discography
| Year | Title | Record label |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Sacramento | CrossCut CrossCut Records CrossCut Records is a German record label that was created in 1981 specializing in blues and roots music.-Background:The CrossCut Mailorder service, a division of Bear Family Records, is one of the world's leading sources for blues and related music... |
| 1991 | The Touch | Alligator Alligator Records Alligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record... |
| 1995 | Made in Germany (live album Live album A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album... ) |
In-Akustik |
| 2000 | Still Shinin | Have Mercy |