May 14, 2021 —– Chart #91
Hello Musical Friends,
Welcome to Friday and the 91st edition of Chart of the Day. This week I dug into the 80’s and found a midwestern rocker with lots of hits. John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, painter, actor, and film director. He is known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation. Mellencamp rose to fame in the 1980s while “honing an almost startlingly plainspoken writing style” that, starting in 1982, yielded a string of Top 10 singles, including “Hurts So Good”, “Jack & Diane”, “Crumblin’ Down”, “Pink Houses”, “Lonely Ol’ Night”, “Small Town”, “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”, “Paper in Fire”, and “Cherry Bomb”. He has amassed 22 Top 40 hits in the United States. In addition, he holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven. Mellencamp has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one. His latest album of original songs, Sad Clowns & Hillbillies, was released on April 28, 2017 to widespread critical acclaim. Mellencamp has sold over 30 million albums in the US and over 60 million worldwide.
Today’s Chart of the Day is Lonely Ol’ Night from his 1985 Album Scarecrow. It was released as the album’s lead single, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also reached number 1 on the Top Rock Tracks chart, staying at the top spot for five weeks. The title of “Lonely Ol’ Night” was inspired by a scene in the 1963 film Hud starring Paul Newman, based on a book by Larry McMurtry. Mellencamp had seen the film many times as a young man, and its portrayal of Newman’s character’s strained relationship with his father affected Mellencamp deeply, inspiring many of his song ideas. The recording of “Lonely Ol’ Night” occurred on April 9, 1985, according to the “Scarecrow” liner notes. The song was recorded at Belmont Mall in Belmont, Indiana, was Record producer by Mellencamp (under the alias “Little Bastard”) and Don Gehman, engineered by Gehman and Greg Edward. Backing Mellencamp were Kenny Aronoff (drums), Toby Myers (bass), Larry Crane (guitar), and Mike Wanchic (guitar, background vocals).
Mellencamp is also one of the founding members of Farm Aid, an organization that began in 1985 with a concert in Champaign, Illinois, to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. Farm Aid concerts have remained an annual event over the past 36 years, and as of 2021 the organization has raised over $60 million. Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008. On June 14, 2018, Mellencamp was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. His biggest musical influences are Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, James Brown, and the Rolling Stones.
Mellencamp was born in a small town, Seymour, Indiana and is of German ancestry. He was born with spina bifida, for which he had corrective surgery as an infant. Mellencamp formed his first band, Crepe Soul, at the age of 14 and later played in the local bands Trash, Snakepit Banana Barn and the Mason Brothers. When Mellencamp was 18, he married his pregnant girlfriend Priscilla Esterline. Mellencamp became a father in December 1970, only six months after he graduated from high school. His daughter, Michelle, later became a mother at age 18, making Mellencamp a grandfather at 37.
Mellencamp attended Vincennes University, a two-year college in Vincennes, Indiana, starting in 1972. During this time he abused drugs and alcohol, stating in a 1986 Rolling Stone interview, “When I was high on pot, it affected me so drastically that when I was in college there were times when I wouldn’t get off the couch. I would lie there, listening to Roxy Music, right next to the record player so I wouldn’t have to get up to flip the record over. I’d listen to this record, that record. There would be four or five days like that when I would be completely gone.”
During his college years, Mellencamp played in several local bands, including the glitter-band Trash, which was named for a New York Dolls song, and he later got a job in Seymour installing telephones. During this period, Mellencamp, who had given up drugs and alcohol before graduating from college, decided to pursue a career in music and traveled to New York City in an attempt to land a record contract.
Easy chords on this one folks. Not complicated, but fun to rock out on this one. Have a good time with it.
Performed Live in 1995: https://youtu.be/ju-rIMGPTmY
Keep rockin’ my friends,
Stan