Johnny Ace scored a string of hit singles in the mid-1950s before dying of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound. Ace signed with Duke Records (originally a Memphis label associated with WDIA) in 1952. Urbane heart ballad My Song, his first recording, topped the R&B charts for nine weeks in September. (My Song was covered in 1968 by Aretha Franklin, on the flipside of See Saw.) Ace began heavy touring, often with Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton. In the next two years, he had eight hits in a row, including Cross My Heart, Please Forgive Me, The Clock, Yes, Baby, Saving My Love for You and Never Let Me Go. After touring for a year, Ace had been performing at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas on Christmas Day, 1954. During a break between sets, he was playing with a .22 caliber revolver. Members of his band said he did this often, sometimes shooting at roadside signs from their car. It was widely reported that Ace killed himself playing Russian roulette. Big Mama Thorntons bass player Curtis Tillman, however, who witnessed the event, said, I will tell you exactly what happened! Johnny Ace had been drinking and he had this little pistol he was waving around the table and someone said ‘Be careful with that thing…’ and he said ‘It’s okay! Gun’s not loaded…see?’ and pointed it at himself with a smile on his face and ‘Bang!’ – sad, sad thing. Big Mama ran outta that dressing room yelling ‘Johnny Ace just killed himself! Thornton said in a written statement (included in the book, The Late Great Johnny Ace) that Ace had been playing with the gun, but not playing Russian roulette. According to Thornton, Ace pointed the gun at his girlfriend and another woman who were sitting nearby, but did not fire. He then pointed the gun toward himself, bragging that he knew which chamber was loaded. The gun went off, shooting him in the side of the head. Bob Dylan and Joan Baez performed Ace’s Never Let Me Go on the Rolling Thunder Revue Tour late in 1975. Elvis Presley recorded Pledging My Love in his last studio session in 1976. Paul Simon wrote and performed the song The Late Great Johnny Ace, in which a boy, upon hearing of the death of Ace, orders a photograph of the deceased singer, describing: It came all the way from Texas / With a sad and simple face / And they signed it on the bottom / From the Late Great Johnny Ace. Here, Ace performs “Cross My Heart” in 1954.
Posted on: Sat, 17 May 2014 04:11:47 +0000
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