Johnny Moore, "Lonely Heart in the City"

[vcq]

I first heard of Johnny Moore on my favorite Live365 station L3 Radio [[www.live365.com/stations/merseygold2). I ordered the CD through ImportCD and am amazed at the quality of some of the stuff on here; what a shame that Johnny Moore didn't achieve greater commercial success! I'm just grateful that his music was preserved for future generations of soul / R&B fans.

See the AllMusic writeup here [[http://www.allmusic.com/album/lonely-heart-in-the-city-r828384).

[Nothing But Soul]

Not to be confused with the Johnny Moore who was a member of the Drifters on multiple occasions, the Chicago soul singer and songwriter Johnny Moore was deserving of greater success than he achieved. He kind of reminds me of Detroit's J.J. Barnes, in that he made some great records but nothing ever hit big for him. Fortunately, he did have some success as a songwriter. Fellow Chicago artists Tyrone Davis and Syl Johnson both had hits with songs that Johnny Moore helped write. I have a two-CD anthology that Mercury put out in 1998 called Lost and Found: The Blue Rock Records Story, which has three tracks that showcase Johnny Moore as a performer and it also features fellow Blue Rock artists Junior Parker and Junior Wells performing songs that Johnny Moore wrote.

[robb_k]

3398
I think Chicago' Johnny Moore was more "unheralded" as a singer than J.J. Barnes. Barnes had a national hit with "Baby Please Come Back Home". Also, the follow-up "Now That I Got You Back" charted in a lot of cities. I don't remember ANY of Chicago's Johnny Moore's releases getting any serious play outside Chicagoland. Barnes also got some non-Detroit play out of his Ric-Tic releases. I heard all those J.J.Barnes cuts played in Chicago, L.A., San Francisco and Seattle, but never heard a Johnny Moore cut played on KGFJ, KDIA or any Seattle station.

[mark speck]

There's a third Johnny Moore, a New Orleans singer who had a one-shot release on Wand around '65-'66, who later became known as Deacon John Moore.

Best,

Mark

[Nothing But Soul]

3398
I think Chicago' Johnny Moore was more "unheralded" as a singer than J.J. Barnes. Barnes had a national hit with "Baby Please Come Back Home". Also, the follow-up "Now That I Got You Back" charted in a lot of cities. I don't remember ANY of Chicago's Johnny Moore's releases getting any serious play outside Chicagoland.
I'm sure you're right that J.J. Barnes had more success as a singer than Johnny Moore, Robb, but frankly I did not hear the records of either one of them at the time they were released. I was living in Kansas City at the time [[although I have since lived in Chicago and Michigan) and neither of these artists got any play there locally. The only Ric Tic artist I was aware of at the time was Edwin Starr.

[platters81]

i would recommend that CD....its one of my favorites...i had collected many of the 45s previously....his tunes are very well respected in Northern Soul circles.