Lou Johnson

Often regarded merely as the male counterpart to Dionne Warwick, uptown soul vocalist Lou Johnson actually stood shoulder to shoulder with her as the leading exponent of early Burt Bacharach and Hal David material, yet unlike many who tackled the pair’s compositions, sustained commercial breakthrough remained stubbornly out of reach. Johnson entered the world in 1941 and first appeared publicly as part of the gospel ensemble the Zionettes before launching a solo career in 1963. He joined Big Top Records, an imprint tied to the Brill Building’s Hill & Range publishing operation, and his initial release, “Unsatisfied,” drew scant attention, prompting the label to pair him with the still-emerging songwriting team of Bacharach and David. Endowed with a dramatic, smoky timbre and supple phrasing, Johnson meshed perfectly with their songs; their inaugural joint effort, “Magic Potion,” is remembered chiefly for its flip side “Reach Out for Me,” which Warwick cut months afterward in an almost verbatim rendition. Johnson’s version failed to register, while Warwick’s succeeded—a pattern that recurred repeatedly. His subsequent single, the stately “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,” became his strongest performer, reaching number 49 on the charts in 1964. Bacharach personally escorted him to the United Kingdom and presented him on the BBC’s Top of the Pops, yet Sandie Shaw soon issued a nearly identical cover that eclipsed his take. Arguably his finest Bacharach-David outing followed: the exquisite “Kentucky Bluebird (Send a Message to Martha)” never entered the Hot 100, although British teen idol Adam Faith duplicated its arrangement en route to a major U.K. success. The record’s B-side, the enduring cult favorite “The Last One to Be Loved,” marked Johnson’s final session under Bacharach and David’s guidance; remarkably, none of their collaborative sides received commercial reissue until the three-disc anthology Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection appeared more than three decades later. Independently, Johnson cut additional Big Top singles such as “Thank You Anyway (Mr. DJ)” and “Park Avenue” before the label dropped him. He resurfaced at Cotillion in 1969 with his debut long-player, Sweet Southern Soul, and followed it with the 1971 Volt album With You in Mind. After those releases his recording activity quietly ceased. In later years he became a regular presence on the Los Angeles club scene and performed with a revived edition of the Ink Spots.