Jilted John

Actor Graham Fellows wrote and delivered the vocals for "Jilted John," a punk/new wave novelty single whose plain melodies and playful absurdity made it one of the most successful examples of the form in the U.K. The narrative follows an ungainly adolescent whose girlfriend Julie drops him for Gordon, a rival with superior looks and greater wealth, prompting the spurned narrator to vent his rage through repeated insults, most memorably the line "Gordon is a moron!" Rabid, the Manchester independent label, issued the track in 1978; demand proved so intense that EMI took over national distribution. Fellows promoted the release with several television performances in character, driving the single to number four on the U.K. charts. A follow-up album, True Love Stories, failed to match that commercial performance. Fellows then resumed his acting career, which later featured a role in the British soap Coronation Street and a biographical stage work on John Lennon.