Michael Johnson
With a taste catholic enough to embrace both Charlie Byrd and Chuck Berry, Johnson was taught rudimentary guitar by an older brother before spending a year in Barcelona studying flamenco with Graciano Tarrago. After returning to the USA, the 22-year-old toured with the Chad Mitchell Trio (with John Denver). In 1971, his first solo album was overseen by Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul And Mary) and Phil Ramone but he had to wait until 1978 when Bluer Than Blue reached number 12 in the US charts. It was followed by lesser entries with Almost Like Being In Love and This Night Won't Last Forever. Transferring from EMI-America to RCA, Johnson next addressed himself to the C&W field, beginning well with I Love You By Heart, a big-selling duet with Sylvia. He was to top the country chart twice with singles from the movie WINGS—Give Me Wings (co-written by Rhonda Fleming) and Hugh Prestwick's The Moon Is Over My Shoulder (featuring a galvanizing acoustic guitar solo by Don Potter). Further hits with Crying Shame, Randy Vanwarmer's I Will Whisper Your Name and— another Prestwick opus—That's That established Johnson as a star of the genre by the '90s. Illness and poor sales of his eponymous 1991 album threatened his new-found status, however.