On the Record
By Susan Pugh on Jan. 31, 2008
Q: In the song “Come On Eileen,” the first line is “Poor old Johnnie Ray.” Ever since I heard the song in the ’80s, I’ve wondered about Johnnie Ray. Who is he?
A: Johnnie Ray was an American singer who was popular in the ’50s. Born in Oregon in 1922, Ray had his first hit in 1951. His performance style, which included crying on stage, made him a teen idol in the years before the birth of rock ’n’ roll. He was on the charts consistently from 1951 to 1956. Although the emergence of Elvis and other rock ’n’ roll performers curtailed his success in America, he remained a big star overseas. In the U.K., he had three No. 1 hits and reached the charts until 1960. He is remembered today for his emotional delivery and the fact that he wore hearing aids because he was almost deaf. He can be seen in the first 30 seconds of the “Come On Eileen” video. Ray died in 1990 at the age of 63.
Q: While at a family sing-a-long, a relative introduced a song he discovered on some old records he found in a mountain cabin. It’s written from the perspective of jubilant slaves looking forward to emancipation at the end of the Civil War. A short time after I heard the song for the first time, I heard the exact same tune on the radio. It was recorded as an instrumental and was titled “The Happy Whistler.” Do you have any knowledge of the original name and history, and who recorded it?
A: The original song is called “Kingdom Coming” and was written by Henry Clay Work (1832-1884), an abolitionist from Middletown, Conn. Written in 1862, the lyrics were written in strongly ethnic African-American dialect and speak about how the master has run away in fear of the Union soldiers. The song was later used in the 1921 Broadway show, “Good Morning Dearie,” and as a background instrumental in the 1944 Judy Garland movie, “Meet Me in St. Louis.” With regard to “The Happy Whistler,” we can find no association between it and “Kingdom Coming,” other than they are both catchy, up-tempo songs that are easy to whistle. In fact, the composer of “The Happy Whistler,” Don Robertson, sued the advertising firm of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborne in 1956 for plagiarizing his work in a commercial they produced for the San Francisco Brewing Co. In issuing its preliminary injunction against Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborne, the court found that Robertson was the sole creator and owner of the song, which was a hit for him that year. Robertson was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.
—What’s the name of that song? Where are they now? What does that lyric mean? Send your questions about songs, albums and musicians to or visit http://www.musicontherecord.com. Brady and Maron are freelance music writers based in Raleigh, N.C.
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