John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 to February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become rock ‘n’ roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage persona.

In 1951 Okeh Records, a minor label of Columbia Records empire, issued a single by Johnnie Ray. The two songs were ‘Cry’and ‘Little White Cloud That Cried’. It was a multi-million seller and world-wide number one. He was, of course, switched to the parent label Columbia. In the 1950s hit after hit was to follow including ‘Hey There’, ‘Walking my Baby Back Home’, ‘Look Homeward Angel’, ‘Such a Night’. The latter was banned on many US radio stations.

Johnnie had many nicknames including ‘The Prince of Wails’ and ‘The Nabob of Sob’ as he very often cried on stage and of course his fans would go bananas looking at this.
In the mid 1950s Johnnie was in Dublin’s Theatre Royal. We had a shop called Tara Records in Tara Street, and our senior partner George O’Reilly invited Johnnie around for some drinks and food.

We had a great party that night. Johnnie had many drinks and he ended up playing cards in the kitchen until the early hours. With some difficulty we got the bould Johnnie downstairs and back to his hotel in my Vauxhall Wyvern. Do any of you remember the Wyvern? This was the only time I met Johnnie and he was great fun and an all round good egg.

Johnnie Ray had a beautiful voice and probably would have been a much bigger star but his hearing plagued him throughout his life. He became deaf in his right ear at age 13 after an accident during a Boy Scout event, and later performed wearing a hearing aid. Surgery performed in New York in 1958, left him almost completely deaf in both ears, although hearing aids helped his condition. To his eternal credit, he gave millions of dollars and much of his time to deaf causes.

By late 1950s the hits had dried up, however he continued to make a very decent living in night clubs and concerts and was always in demand in the UK. Johnnie Ray died of liver failure in Los Angeles in 1990. May he rest in peace.

Johnnie left behind a vast catalogue of records. I warmly recommend ‘The Best of Johnnie Ray’ on Columbia 4840402.