THE FANTASTIC JOHNNY C

In 1967, the Fantastic Johnny C combined two popular dances and created a top ten smash.

He was born John Corley in Greenwood, South Carolina, on April 28, 1943. He attended Brewer High School and served in the military before settling in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he sang gospel at the Macedonia Baptist Church.

By 1967, Corley had met producer Jesse James of Phil.-L.A. of Soul Records. Together, they came up with “Boogaloo Down Broadway.” It capitalized on two of soul music’s then-popular dances, the Boogaloo and the Funky Broadway. They recorded the song in Philadelphia. With a savage guitar riff that repeatedly leads into a brief break punctuated by a beautifully well-placed drum crack, the single shot to #5 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart and #7 pop at the end of 1967. For good measure, the flip side, “Look What Love Can Make You Do,” featured the same backing track. The session players included future members of MFSB, whose “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” would hit #1 in 1974.

The success of Corley’s debut release led to an identically-titled LP, which consisted in large part of covers like “Barefootin’” (Robert Parker), “Land of 1000 Dances” (Wilson Pickett), “Stand By Me” (Ben E. King), and “Warm and Tender Love” (Percy Sledge). Its original songs included the high-powered “Got What You Need,” the gospel-drenched “New Love,” and the downtempo “Baby I Need You.” A reviewer at allmusic.com praised the album as “a mini-masterpiece of gritty soul.”

The summer of 1968 saw Corley’s second-biggest single, “Hitch It to the Horse,” inspired by Phil-L.A. of Soul’s big instrumental hit, “The Horse” by Cliff Nobles & Co. It was Corley’s last appearance on the R&B chart, though his cover of the Soul Brothers Six’s “Some Kind of Wonderful” grazed the lower rungs of the Billboard Hot 100. (In early 1975, Grand Funk would take the same song to #3.)

In 1970, with Jesse James still at the helm, Corley switched labels to Kama Sutra. But his one single there, “You’ve Got Your Hooks in Me,” did nothing. In 1973, Corley returned to Phil-L.A. of Soul (this time without James) and cut “Waiting For the Rain.” It, too, was commercially unsuccessful.

John Corley would later quit the music business. His whereabouts are unknown.

Charted singles:

“Boogaloo Down Broadway” (1967) R&B #5, Pop #7
“Got What You Need” (1968) R&B #32, Pop #56
“Hitch It to the Horse” (1968) R&B #25, Pop #34
“(She’s) Some Kind of Wonderful” (1968) Pop #87
“Is There Anything Better Than Making Love?” (1969) Pop #130