A Girl Called Johnny

"A Girl Called Johnny" was inspired by American singer-songwriter Patti Smith.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5oYAAAAIAAJ&q=waterboys+%22girl+called+johnny%22+%22Patti+Smith%22 |title=Rock Movers & Shakers - Dafydd Rees - Google Books |date=2006-12-29 |isbn=9780874366617 |access-date=2020-04-20|last1=Rees |first1=Dafydd }} Scott discovered Smith's musical work and poetry in 1976 and became a big fan, which led to him forming his own fanzine, Jungleland. In 1978, Scott was aware Smith was due to perform with her band at the Rainbow Theatre in London. He knew she always stayed at the Portobello Hotel and was successful in speaking to her over the phone after ringing the hotel. Smith suggested Scott come down from Scotland to see the show and write about it in his fanzine. He traveled down to London by train, with Smith providing him with a concert ticket, covering the expense of his hotel room and placing him under the care of her guitarist Lenny Kaye.{{cite book|last=Scott|first=Mike|title=Adventures of a Waterboy|year=2017|publisher=Jawbone|isbn=978-1911036357|pages=23–33}}

Speaking of the influence of Smith on the song, Scott told Colin Irwin of Melody Maker in 1983, "There is a line about a girl called Johnny in one of her songs called 'Redondo Beach', and I heard a tape and I noticed that Johnny is a hero or heroine on lots of her early songs. So I thought I'd make her Johnny because she vanished a few years ago... it's a sort of postscript."{{cite magazine |last=Irwin |first=Colin |title=A boy called Michael |magazine=Melody Maker |date=14 May 1983 |page=9 |issn=0025-9012}}

"A Girl Called Johnny" was recorded at Farmyard Studios in May 1982. Although most of the early Waterboys' material was produced by Scott, the song was produced by Rupert Hine.{{cite web|url=https://www.mikescottwaterboys.com/waterboys-discs.php?releaseid=10&releasepageid=36 |title=The Waterboys |publisher=Mikescottwaterboys.com |access-date=2020-04-20}} Hine gave the song its Motown-inspired backbeat and saxophonist Anthony Thistlethwaite wrote his own sax lines.{{cite web|url=https://www.sodajerker.com/episode-74-mike-scott/ |title=Episode 74 - Mike Scott |last1=Barber |first1=Simon |last2=O'Connor |first2=Brian |publisher=Sodajerker |date=2015 |access-date=25 October 2021}}

Upon its release, Mike Gardner of Record Mirror commented, "This sounds like Madness taken seriously. There's the rolling piano and the wailing sax. It works until leadened lyrics shoot it down in flames. But it has a certain charm."{{cite magazine|last=Gardner|first=Mike|date=2 April 1983|title=Singles|magazine=Record Mirror}} Jim Whiteford of the Kilmarnock Standard described "A Girl Called Johnny" as "a good debut record worth attention". He noted the "same old rasping saxophone sound", but added that the song is made "distinctive" by its "tinkling honky-tonk piano" and Scott's voice.{{cite news |last=Whiteford |first=Jim |date=25 March 1983 |title=Records |newspaper=Kilmarnock Standard |page=7}} Robbi Millar of Sounds wrote, "Playing this single reveal[s] a level of genuine passionate emotion often missed from today's charts. Rolling in on a nostalgic keyboard base, it's messy and derivative in a what-the-hell manner, shrugging its shoulders and taking no advice."{{cite magazine |last=Millar |first=Robbi |title=Singles |magazine=Sounds |date=26 March 1983 |page=38 |issn=0144-5774}}

In a review of The Waterboys, Ken Tucker of The Philadelphia Inquirer described "A Girl Called Johnny" as "a beautiful song, full of a romantic excessiveness that is endearing."{{cite news|last=Tucker|first=Ken|date=24 February 1984|title=Albums|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer}} Rick Shefchik of Knight-Ridder Newspapers noted the song's "jazz-blues piano figure that instantly sticks in the brain".{{cite news|last=Shefchik|first=Rick|date=30 March 1984|title=Recordings|newspaper=The Times Leader}}

In a 1991 feature for the Sunday Independent, Barry Egan commented, "1982's 'A Girl Called Johnny', replete with Thistlewaite's heaven-storming saxophone break, was the first sign we received that a new star, a weird star, was soon to blaze in the firmament: Michael Scott."{{cite news|last=Egan|first=Barry|date=28 April 1991|title=Jeffrey Archer's BIG Wembley bash|newspaper=Sunday Independent}} In a 2017 retrospective on the "best of Mike Scott", Tom Doyle of Q included "A Girl Called Johnny" as one of ten tracks on the list and described it as a "brilliant debut single with loping piano riff and lyric inspired by the attitude of Patti Smith".{{cite magazine |last=Doyle |first=Tom |date=October 2017 |title=Maverick: Mike Scott |magazine=Q |pages=86–87}}

• In 1988, British singer Sandie Shaw released a version of the song on her seventh studio album Hello Angel.{{cite web|author=Fred Thomas |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/hello-angel-mw0000470230 |title=Hello Angel - Sandie Shaw | Songs, Reviews, Credits |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=2020-04-20}}

{{tracklist

| headline = 7" single

| title1 = A Girl Called Johnny

| length1 = 3:41

| title2 = The Late Train to Heaven

| length2 = 3:34

}}

{{tracklist

| headline = 12" single

| title1 = A Girl Called Johnny

| length1 = 3:41

| title2 = Ready for the Monkey House

| length2 = 4:02

| title3 = Somebody Might Wave Back

| length3 = 2:51

| title4 = Out of Control (*)

| length4 = 4:02

}}

(*) "Out of Control" was recorded by Another Pretty Face for a John Peel Radio One session

• Mike Scott – vocals, piano, electric guitar, percussion
• Anthony Thistlethwaite – saxophone, percussion
• Nick Linden – bass
• Kevin Wilkinson – drums
• Ray Massey, Rupert Hine – percussion on "A Girl Called Johnny"
• John Caldwell – guitar and violin on "Out of Control"
• Alan Mair – bass on "Out of Control"
• Adrian Johnston – drums on "Out of Control"

Production

• Rupert Hine – producer of "A Girl Called Johnny"
• Steven Tayler – engineer on "A Girl Called Johnny"
• Mike Scott – producer of "The Late Train to Heaven", "Ready for the Monkey House" and "Somebody Might Wave Back"
• Jim Preen – engineer on "The Late Train to Heaven", "Ready for the Monkey House" and "Somebody Might Wave Back"
• Chris Lycett – producer of "Out of Control"

Other

• Panny Charrington – photography

{{Reflist}}

{{The Waterboys}}

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Category:1983 songs

Category:1983 debut singles

Category:The Waterboys songs

Category:Songs written by Mike Scott (musician)

Category:Song recordings produced by Rupert Hine