Country-pop vocalist Johnny Carver reached the height of his career in the 1970s through sporadic chart entries that adapted soft-pop smashes into country arrangements. Raised in the countryside outside Jackson, MS, he performed with relatives in a regional country-gospel quartet. He later assembled his own group, the Capital Cowboys, which secured sponsorship from an ice-cream firm. Carver launched his initial national tour in 1959, appearing at clubs and fairs, before relocating to Los Angeles in 1965; there he became a frequent guest on local television programs and served as leader of the house band at the Palomino club. Roy Drusky cut Carver’s original composition “New Lips” in 1967, prompting Imperial to offer the songwriter his own recording contract. The self-titled debut album appeared later that year and featured the modest success “Your Lily White Hands”; additional country-pop singles such as 1968’s “I Still Didn’t Have the Sense to Go” and 1969’s “That’s Your Hang Up” also registered minor chart activity. Signing with ABC in 1972, he scored a substantial country hit via his reading of Tony Orlando & Dawn’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.” Over the ensuing five years a series of Top 40 country singles emerged, among them the Top Ten entries “You Really Haven’t Changed” (1973), “Don’t Tell (That Sweet Old Lady of Mine)” (1974), and yet another country-styled pop cover, the Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight” (1976). His final Top 40 placement arrived with 1977’s “Living Next Door to Alice,” while the last single to chart was a 1981 version of ABBA’s “S.O.S.” Thereafter he established himself as a steady attraction in Branson, MO.
