JOHNNIE RAY - “Yes Tonight Josephine”
(7th June 1955)
Snappy nudge-wink tune bizarrely and gratifyingly enlivened by the backing vocalists, who repeat - ahem - “Yip Yip we ‘pon the boom-ditty boom-ditty!” at every opportunity (and they have several). It would undermine a more serious song, but from its title down “Yes Tonight” is no such thing. My wife suggests that Josephine should have nothing to do with this chancer, but that seems a little harsh. After all, Ray gets inside the song with aplomb and plays the comedy horndog role to the hilt, his lips smacking and tongue flapping like a Tex Avery cartoon wolf. Yip yip! 6
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wichita lineman on July 21st, 2008
Monumentally silly and catchy as hell. I love this, it condenses the corn and melodic joy of Guy Mitchell’s hits and throws them into a nascent rock arrangement. Quite audibly, you can hear the camp and sass that Elvis drew from Johnnie.
I know Tom’s take is how the music stands up in the 21st century, without contemporary context. But I’ve often wondered how audiences - allegedly the first teen screamers - reacted to Ray’s stage act, so I bought, for research purposes, his 1954 Live At The London Palladium album. The answer? They ooh and aah and gasp as if they were watching a saucy circus act, sex presumably being rather new in Britain seeing as it wasn’t officially invented until 1963.
And, finally, they scream for Such A Night, which he reprises, and reprises again, like James Brown throwing off the cape. And he does this until you can hear girls shout “Johnnie!!” At which point, modern Pop begins.