 |
 |
This site does not
make a profit from sales, CD/Book sales cover only 8% of the cost to maintain
this site |
|
|
|
|
IN
MEMORY OF JOHN HANNI |
|
Mrs. Joy Hanni,
who has done so much work for this site and has supplied most of the
photos you see of Johnnie Ray on this site, lost her husband, John
Hanni, to cancer on the morning of February 9, 2008. |
|
All of us
involved with johnnieray.com have met John Hanni and he was a true
gentleman, and will be missed. |
|
Our
condolences to Joy and her family. |
|
|
WE
REMEMBER JOAN JONES |
|
Novac Noury,
brother of Joan Jones, A Johnnie Ray Fan Club President in the 1950's,
informed us that Joan passed away while in Hospice Care in
December, 2006. |
|
Joan helped
out those who were in need of communication with other fans decades
before the internet explosion. Her passing was quick and painless. The
funeral was held in Forest Hills Cemetery near a lake, she is survived
by three children who live in the Stuart, South Florida area. |
|
Novac is
working on a website that will include her legacy of work for the
hearing impaired. He has also written a song dedicated to his sister
"Joanie", who over came certain obstacles and became a voice
in the religious and social community that was not recognized at that
time as it is today. |
www.johnnieray.com
- dedicated
to HERB & HAL KALIN |
|
"SINGER
DIES IN CAR CRASH": Often we see these headlines and
scan over them. But when it happens to someone you have worked with,
respected and learned to call your friend it attracts more than
attention. It becomes mentally and physically exhausting to comprehend. |
| This
is the case of Hal Kalin, brother of Herb
Kalin
who the world knows as the Kalin
Twins, they also are big Johnnie Ray fans. Hal was killed Tuesday Aug 23rd,
2005 after his vehicle was struck by another in Waldorf, Md. |
| The
Kalins were life long devoted fans of
Johnnie Ray and participated in the Johnnie
Ray remembrance tours in England and in Johnnies home town of Dallas
Oregon. They, along with friend and fellow performer Tad Mann, who once
managed Johnnie Ray, were making plans to do a tour of Australia raising
money for the hard of hearing. |
|
The Kalin
twins reached stardom in 1958 with their upbeat
handclapping song ‘WHEN’. A
song that, when performed even years after,
brought applause to them. The two young New
Jersey boys raised the roof at venues like The Palladium,
the Hippodrome and large venues in Australia. |
|
Hal was also an accomplished musician,
singer and poet. Some of his poetry is on the
Kalin Twins
website. Hal was buried on Monday August
29th, 2005 in his Tuxedo as he should
be. Hal Kalin
was a classy guy. Like us that are
aware of his death, many that read this will also be saddened beyond
words. There are no words from those who knew him that can express our
loss or make Brother Herb know how we truly grieve for Hal.
We truly feel your loss and the spot
where Hal stood will leave a huge empty space .
|
|
Special thanks to Tad Mann for detailed information above -Ric Patterson, johnnieray.com
webmaster. Regretfully, Hal's brother, Herb, passed away July
21, 2006, sadly, the last letter I received
from him said "I hope that soon we can spend more time together
talking about Johnnie..." |
|
|
A message from Joy Hanni in Florida:
|
I'm thinking of Hal |
|
Such a very good pal |
|
He'll be missed for
sure |
|
Our hearts are sore |
|
He'll watch over us all |
|
Until we get our own
call |
|
He hasn't gone away |
|
Nor has Johnnie Ray |
|
|
CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS FROM JOHNNIE RAY DAY 2002! |
 |
Click on this article to the
left to read Jodie Lawrence' follow-up on JOHNNIE RAY DAY in the Statesman Journal. |
|
|
 |
This is the Scout who
portrayed Johnnie Ray in a British Biography. |
|
|
The
JOHNNIE RAY profile (The U.K.'s excellent equivalent to A&E's "Biography")
aired on ITV's "The South Bank Show" Easter Sunday, 2002! The South Bank Show
has been Britain's dominant arts program for nearly 25 years. The South Bank Show |
 |
Click HERE to see Johnnie Ray as he appeared on E! |
Click HERE to hear audio from the DVD release of the movie "Joe The
King" with a Johnnie Ray soundtrack & dialogue! |
JOHNNIERAY.com
is the web's most detailed non-profit fan-operated site! |
|
 |
El sitio de admiradores
internacional de Johnnie Ray le da la bienvenida á una herencia que siempre vive hoy |
|
THE JOHNNIE RAY INTERNATIONAL FAN SITE WELCOMES YOU TO A
LEGACY THAT LIVES ON TODAY |
This site is a non-profit place for all of Johnnie's fans, family, friends
and co-workers to share in the memories, good times and fun that is JOHNNIE RAY... |
| For those of you
who have been fans for a long time, or those who are just recently discovering the world
of JOHNNIE RAY, browse around and enjoy JOHNNIERAY.COM |
Click the photo above to enlarge and see who is sitting with Johnnie! |
 |
|
 |
e-mail received 4.9.00: How wonderful of you to do this for a marvelous talent as Johnnie
was....IS!! I go back to the "Whiskey & Gin" & " Tell The Lady I
Said Goodbye" days! And I'm proud of it! I remember that first musical short film of
him singing the song in a club. I also remember, as a very young teen-ager, laying on top
of my radio and listening with tears streaming down my cheeks, every time "Cry"
played over the air waves. My relatives thought I had lost my mind! But I was just totally
wrapped up in Mr. Emotion during those years.
-Lila D. Gayton, Jacksonville, Florida |
| READ OR LEAVE MESSAGES ON THE
JOHNNIE RAY BULLETIN BOARD (click the board to enter the bulletin board)! Note: This link will take you to another site that I am not
affiliated with. |
 |
|
| "They say
that no one is really gone as long as they are thought of. Well, Ric, you certainly
are doing wonderful job keeping Johnnie alive & I love you for
it..." -Joy Hanni of Peoria, Illinois, in 1999, a
devoted Johnnie Ray Fan. Joy now resides in Florida. |
|
 |
Most of the photos on this site are provided
by Joy Hanni |
|
The latest winner of
the Johnnie Ray CD "High Drama" from Sony Music is JOSEPH LASLO of Webster, New
York, USA! |
 |
To qualify for the
drawing each month on the 28th, click on the "Fan Club" button for info!
|
|
NEW JOHNNIE RAY CD'S
AVAILABLE !
The Two LP-CD
"Til Morning/A Sinner Am I" has sold out, but used CD copies in excellent
condition are available, this is the first time the LP "A Sinner
Am I" is available in the states. Click on the CD to see
the complete Johnnie Ray CD store including this fine CD from Johnnie Ray
WHAT
IS THIS WEB SITE ALL ABOUT? |
|
Johnnieray.com is dedicated to preserving
the memory of one of the world's greatest entertainers ever, John Alvin Ray (born January
10, 1927). Johnnie has been considered by most musical historians as the "missing
link" between Frank Sinatra & Elvis Presley,
arriving on the scene as audiences were losing interest in Sinatra and before Presley
emerged, Johnnie, being the first entertainer to actually grab a microphone from the
stand while in front of a live audience and put on a show that could never be reproduced
on a phonograph record, helped to evolve the bobby soxer "teen idol" fan world
that became a permanent staple in popular music since Johnnie's emergence on the scene in
1951. In 1952 The World Telegraph & Sun put Frank Sinatra in the dark ages when
it ran the headline: "GONE ON FRANKIE IN '42, GONE IN '52" with an article about
how a new youngster, Johnnie Ray, had the nation's ear and Sinatra's records no longer
sold in their familiar quantities. Later in 1956, The Las Vegas Sun would
proclaim Elvis Presley as "the most important singing find since Johnnie Ray".
Most critics now credit Johnnie Ray AND Frank Sinatra for actually starting the whole
genre of Teen Idolism. |
| Johnnie Ray's dream of becoming a
professional actor took a start with his starring role in the CBS Made-For-TV movie
"The Big Shot" (hosted by Ronald Reagan and available from Shokus Video) and the 20th Century Fox film
"There's No Business Like Show Business" (available in the "Johnnie Ray
Store" section of this site). He later starred in "Rogues Gallery" in 1968 and did
guest shots on the "CHiPs"
television series (twice), did a guest shot on American Bandstand's 25th Anniversary
Show in 1977, was portrayed briefly in the CBS two-part Judy Garland Story in February,
2001 and re-recorded some of his material (as did Bill
Haley, Fats Domino, Les Paul & Mary Ford
and many others to secure royalties every time a particular episode is aired, even today)
for the "Happy
Days" television program |
 |
Above:
Fans gather to get Johnnie's autograph |
 |
|
 |
Johnnie's impressive and exhausting live
appearances created the frenzy of fans who would later carry on with the same outrageous
reaction to Elvis, Bill Haley and The Beatles, while at the same time, unknown to
Johnnie at the time, he created the feel, atmosphere and the excitement of what would be
Rock-n-Roll and delivered it world-wide to teen-agers desperately looking for
"something more" in the pre-1955 era. |
| Johnnie Ray's records have sold in the
millions over and over again, the first of which was a double sided hit (the first ever): "Cry" , which
won the Grammy Hall Of Fame Award in 1998, and the flip side "Little White Cloud That
Cried" in 1951, both sides "A" & "B" remained at the top
of the pop charts through to 1952 and has sold over 21 million copies alone.
"Cry" is performed in most current stage productions of "Forever Plaid" all
over the world, including Honolulu, Hawaii,
and "Cry" was Johnnie's first of many gold record awards from Columbia Records,
the most recent being for the sale of over 500,000 copies of the CD and cassette "16
Most Requested", awarded ten years after Johnnie Ray's death. |
 |
 |
Many other big hits followed, including
producer Mitch Miller's pairing of Johnnie Ray with Frankie
Lane & Doris Day, until the boom of Rock-n-Roll. Johnnie appeared on many live
television programs throughout the 1950's (many available from Shokus Video), including a dozen appearances on Ed
Sullivan's Toast Of The Town/The Ed Sullivan Show. Even after Rock-n-Roll burst upon the
scene, Johnnie's success continued abroad, becoming more popular in Australia and The U.K. throughout the rest
of his career than in his homeland.
One of Australia's first teen idols, Johnny O'Keefe, got his start
impersonating Johnnie Ray, as did Lonnie Lee also. There is a
great photo of Johnny O'Keefe
impersonating Johnnie Ray in the book "The Wild One: The Life & Times Of
Johnny O'Keefe". Although Johnnie Ray was hearing-impaired, his energy and
emotional singing style made him the first teen idol to fully
capitalize on Pop Music. |
Johnnie continued to hit the Hot
100 on through the 1950's, including "Just
Walking In The Rain" and "You
Don't Owe Me A Thing" (written by Marty Robbins, who once
said on national television that it was not a hit by him, but he gets
a lot of requests for it) -the later of which was Johnnie's last top 10 hit in
America. In 1964 Johnnie Ray starred in a stage production of William Inge's Bus Stop
August 10 through to August 20 at Bucks County Playhouse in
New Hope, Pa.
Although Johnnie was over-shadowed in The
United States by Rock & Roll artists, he continued to perform for eager fans
internationally on through to the 1980's. Tony Bennet said of Johnnie: "...he was the
first Rock-n-Roll Star..."
The memory of Johnnie Ray lives on in
current popular music today; Johnnie Ray is mentioned in the lyrics of Billy Joel's "We Didn't
Start The Fire" (although some bios for the song incorrectly
mention Johnnie as
being popular in 1949) & Jimmy
Ray's "Are You Jimmy Ray?" from 1997 in which all the famous "Rays" are
mentioned, like Link Wray, Faye
Wray, etc. It is "Johnnie Ray" who is mentioned in the first verse of the song.
Johnnie Ray's voice can be heard sampled in Portishead's "Biscuit"
(the link has since gone bad) and Johnnie
is the topic of the first three verses of the number one hit "Come On Eileen" by
Dexys Midnight Runners (Johnnie is also in the video). Johnnie Ray can also be seen in the
Billy Idol video "Don't Need A Gun", of which you can view here
on Youtube. Johnnie's re-recordings of his Columbia
Record's hits have been, and continue to be, re-released on many record labels, even K-Tel
released a Johnnie Ray CD recently.
Johnnie Ray was portrayed in the
made-for-TV movie about Judy Garland in 2001, click here to
see images from that movie.
| Johnnie Ray is a favorite among the likes
of Ringo Starr, Morrissey,
Marshall Crenshaw and even David
Bowie liked Johnnie Ray. Eric
Carmen impressed his parents at an early age by doing impressions of Johnnie Ray.
Nine-year-old original Mickey Mouse Club Mousketeer Johnny Crawford's
impersonation of Johnnie Ray helped him get chosen as one of the 24 original Mousketeers
in 1955. Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones
once said "Johnnie Ray was one of the first to make me really open my
ears. That was like 2 or 3 years before Elvis." You can see Johnnie Ray's name on the end credits of early episodes of
television's "Happy
Days". More recently, Johnnie's name has shown up in the hard-back fiction novel "The Long Firm" by Jake
Arnott, which was made into a five-part BBC mini-series for television. The Rock &
Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, celebrates the phenomenon of teen idols in what they
call "Frank Sinatra & JOHNNIE RAY right up to The Backstreet Boys and
N'Sync", which is an exhibit that replaced the Hip-Hop exhibit. Johnnie's picture can
be seen in the May, 2001 issue of Vanity Fair Magazine, page 211. |
 |
Johnnieray.com is a
non-profit site created by Ric Patterson in Louisiana, USA,
administered by Tad Mann in Nevada, USA,
Joy Hanni in Florida, USA, and Ann Lawlor in England, all of which are probably the
biggest Johnnie Ray Fans of all time, if you are a bigger fan, let us know! Go to the
"e-mail" page from the buttons at left. |
 |
Johnnie Ray was
the first artist in the history of Popular Music to have a hit record with both sides
"A" and "B" to be a hit! The "A" side
of the Columbia Records 78 rpm was "Cry", the
"B" side was "Little White Cloud That Cried". |
 |
E-mail received 11/99:
"I am writing to you in concern of the Johnnie Ray web site. See, one day I was
surfing the net and I came across your web site. My Grandmother was the late Ms. Elma
Hazel Ray. I wanted to tell you that it's about time someone made a web site dedicated to
my uncle. It is a wonderful web site and I feel it represents Johnnie really well! Thank
you very much!"
Jaime Forcier,
Waldport,OR |
Get
the latest issue of "Cry", The Johnnie Ray Monthly Newsletter (actual paper, not
e-mail), just click on the "FAN CLUB" button at left for information, get a
free issue, too! |
©2008 Kahuna Media |
|
