John D. Loudermilk
John Dee Loudermilk Jr.
- Johnny Dee
- Ebe Sneezer
March 31, 1934
Durham, North Carolina, U.S.
September 21, 2016 (aged 82)
Christiana, Tennessee, U.S.
Singer, songwriter
Guitar
1950—2016
Loudermilk was born in Durham, North Carolina, to Pauline and John D. Loudermilk Sr., an illiterate carpenter.[1][2] The family were members of the Salvation Army. He was influenced by the singing of the Christian Church. His cousins Ira and Charlie Loudermilk were known professionally as the Louvin Brothers.[3] Loudermilk was a graduate of Campbell College (now Campbell University), a private North Carolina Baptist Convention-owned college in Buies Creek, North Carolina.
As a young boy, Loudermilk learned the guitar, and while still in his teens wrote a poem that he set to music, "A Rose and a Baby Ruth". The owners of local television station WTVD, where he worked as a graphic artist, allowed him to play the song on-air, resulting in country musician George Hamilton IV putting it on record in 1956. It spent 20 weeks on the Billboard magazine pop chart, reaching No. 6.[4]
After Eddie Cochran had his first hit record with Loudermilk's "Sittin' in the Balcony", Loudermilk's career path was underway.[5]
Loudermilk recorded some of his own songs—including "Sittin' in the Balcony", which reached No. 38 on the pop charts in 1957—as "Johnny Dee", for the North Carolina-based Colonial Records label.
In 1958, he signed with Columbia Records and recorded five unsuccessful singles to 1959, including the original version of "Tobacco Road".[6] In 1961, he signed with RCA Victor, where he had a number of hits:
It was as a songwriter that Loudermilk made his mark. In 1963 he wrote another all-time hit for George Hamilton IV, "Abilene". Working out of Nashville, Tennessee, Loudermilk became one of the most productive songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s, penning country and pop music hits for the Everly Brothers, Johnny Tillotson, Chet Atkins, the Nashville Teens, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Johnny Cash, Marianne Faithfull, Stonewall Jackson, Kris Jensen, and Sue Thompson. His song "The Pale Faced Indian" (later known as "Indian Reservation") was a hit in the 1970s; and "Tobacco Road" was a hit in the 1960s and 1970s for, among others, the Nashville Teens, Blues Magoos, Eric Burdon & War, and David Lee Roth. Several singers recorded "Midnight Bus"; Loudermilk commented that the best was by Betty McQuade from Melbourne, Australia.[7]
After suffering from prostate cancer and respiratory ailments, Loudermilk died on September 21, 2016, at his home in Christiana, Tennessee. He was 82. The actual cause of death was a heart attack, according to his son Michael.[2][8][9]
The John D. Loudermilk Collection is in the Southern Folklife Collection of the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[10]