Flashback to 1986. MTV was still in its heyday and most young people’s idea of a great time on Friday night was to sit around watching music videos. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston and so many other great talents. My friends and I were no different than everyone else and loved to watch our favorites come on screen so we could sing and dance with them. I remember one night we were half listening to the music blaring from the TV and half gossiping about whatever drama was going on at the time. All of a sudden we heard a loud rhythmic beat and turned to watch a sexy man in tight jeans and a leather jacket gyrating around the screen. The video showed only him, in black and white. We missed seeing his name at the beginning. Who was he? He looked like a combination of George Michael and Mike Reno from Loverboy. (Check Google all you under 30s). We sat mesmerized throughout the entire video watching this guy dance some pretty great moves while singing about being a Jungle Boy. Then when the video ended, we all said the same thing: Who the hell is John Eddie? We were in love and of course ran out to buy his album the next day. I wouldn’t call John Eddie a one hit wonder, because he did do several other videos. (Check YouTube, there’s some great songs). But none ever held us as transfixed as our Jungle Boy video. I still love this and would like to share it with everyone.
Check it out:
(C) 1986 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
John Eddie has left his Jungle Boy days behind and moved on to more sedate music. He plays in many different venues and has a large fan base still, including me.
So again we ask…Who the hell is John Eddie?? An excerpt from his bio tells us a little about who the hell he is:
On the roller coaster of his career so far, John Eddie has had enough big breaks, hard luck, new beginnings, false starts, serious adventure and big fun to inspire a boxed set's worth of country songs. He's had the sort of life - often hard-scrabble, occasionally charmed -- that other artists only imagine, or have someone else write about for them. John has managed to document a lot of this on Who The Hell Is John Eddie?, his debut disc for Lost Highway, along with details of assorted dreams, wishes, romances, and regrets. He really has spent endless days and nights on the road, playing the "shit-hole bars" he so hilariously and accurately recalls. And he's endured the heckling of alcohol-fueled patrons wanting to hear Skynyrd and Petty and demanding to know, Who The Hell Is John Eddie?
The funny thing is, his career first took at a time when everybody, in the music biz at least, wanted to know who the hell John Eddie was. It was the mid-eighties and the Virginia native, who'd recently relocated to New Jersey, was playing a showcase club in Manhattan called Trax. A busload of supporters had come to cheer him on. A few A&R guys caught the show, in which John wowed everyone in the house. By the next morning he found himself on the brink of an intense major-label bidding war that soon attracted the interest of the press as well as the industry. It didn't hurt that Bruce Springsteen, was, and still is, a fan and would sometimes surprise John by hopping onstage during his weekly gig at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ.
Though lots of comparisons to the Boss were made, especially after John signed a two-album deal with CBS/Sony, John's approach was always more Memphis than Asbury Park. He had a lot of country in him, plus elements of soul music, folk, and rockabilly. There was boyish swagger in his voice, but it was the vulnerability lurking behind it that could really get to you. John had an easy-going rapport with his very loyal audience, and a self-deprecating sense of humor that has only sharpened over the years.
To learn more about John, including his upcoming gigs, check out his website at www.johneddie.com.
We love you John Eddie, and we KNOW who the hell you are!!!!!!!
Flashback to 1986. MTV was still in its heyday and most young people’s idea of a great time on Friday night was to sit around watching music videos. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston and so many other great talents. My friends and I were no different than everyone else and loved to watch our favorites come on screen so we could sing and dance with them. I remember one night we were half listening to the music blaring from the TV and half gossiping about whatever drama was going on at the time. All of a sudden we heard a loud rhythmic beat and turned to watch a sexy man in tight jeans and a leather jacket gyrating around the screen. The video showed only him, in black and white. We missed seeing his name at the beginning. Who was he? He looked like a combination of George Michael and Mike Reno from Loverboy. (Check Google all you under 30s). We sat mesmerized throughout the entire video watching this guy dance some pretty great moves while singing about being a Jungle Boy. Then when the video ended, we all said the same thing: Who the hell is John Eddie? We were in love and of course ran out to buy his album the next day. I wouldn’t call John Eddie a one hit wonder, because he did do several other videos. (Check YouTube, there’s some great songs). But none ever held us as transfixed as our Jungle Boy video. I still love this and would like to share it with everyone.
On the roller coaster of his career so far, John Eddie has had enough big breaks, hard luck, new beginnings, false starts, serious adventure and big fun to inspire a boxed set's worth of country songs. He's had the sort of life - often hard-scrabble, occasionally charmed -- that other artists only imagine, or have someone else write about for them. John has managed to document a lot of this on Who The Hell Is John Eddie?, his debut disc for Lost Highway, along with details of assorted dreams, wishes, romances, and regrets. He really has spent endless days and nights on the road, playing the "shit-hole bars" he so hilariously and accurately recalls. And he's endured the heckling of alcohol-fueled patrons wanting to hear Skynyrd and Petty and demanding to know, Who The Hell Is John Eddie?