Johnny O'Keefe

Johnny O'Keefe (born John Michael O'Keefe, January 6 1935; died October 6 1978) was a famous Australian rock and roll singer whose career began in the 1950s and ended with his early death in the late 1970s. Some of his hits include "Wild One (Real Wild Child)" (1958), "Shout!" and "She's My Baby".

Often referred to by his initials, "JOK" or by his nickname, "The Wild One", O'Keefe was the first and biggest star of the 'classic' rock'n'roll era in Australia. He was the first Australian rock'n'roll performer to tour the United States, and the first Australian artist to make the local Top 40 charts, and he remains Australia's most successful chart performer, scoring twenty-nine Top 40 hits to his credit in Australia between 1959 and 1974.

Johnny O'Keefe was the younger brother of noted Australian jurist Barry O'Keefe (a former head of the NSW ICAC) and the uncle of actor and TV presenter Andrew O'Keefe.

Early life

O'Keefe was born in the inner Sydney suburb of Balmain on 6 January 1935. He was the second of three children of Raymond Moran O'Keefe and his wife Thelma Edna Kennedy. He attended the local Catholic pimary school, and his secondary schooling was at Christian Brothers' College in nearby Waverley.

After matriculating he undertook a first-year certificate at the College of Retailing in Sydney. He worked by day as a salesman at his father's furniture store and enrolled to study economics at the University of Sydney, but after hearing Bill Haley singing "Rock Around the Clock" in the film Blackboard Jungle in 1955, he dropped out of university with the aim of becoming a singer.

Johnny had a solid musical background -- his father occasionally played in a jazz band -- and as a boy Johnny sang in the school choir and took piano, stage and elocution lessons and appeared on radio 2UW's Amateur Hour. A strong early musical influence was the American singer Johnny Ray, who toured Australia to great acclaim in the 1950s, and O'Keefe began his singing career as a Johnny Ray impersonator.

Musical career

O'Keefe enrolled to study economics at the University of Sydney, but his life changed irrevocably after hearing Bill Haley singing "Rock Around the Clock" in the film Blackboard Jungle in 1955. From this point on he dedicated himself to becoming a rock'n'roll star.

Although he was perhaps an unlikely candidate for stardom, he pursued it relentlessly for the next two decades and it is a tribute to his tenacity that in large measure, his dream of stardom was achieved. Australian rock historian Ian McFarlane succintly described O'Keefe's qualities in his article on the singer in the Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop:

"J.O'K was the first to admit that he was a limited singer, but he possessed an incredible drive, a fierce ambition to succeed, a tireless facility for self-promotion, a tremendous flair for showmanship and a larrikin spirit that was irrepressible."

Rise to stardom

In September 1956 O'Keefe and his friend Dave Owen (an American-born tenor sax player) formed Australia's first rock'n'roll band, The Dee Jays. The original lineup of the group was John Balkins (baritone sax), Kevin Norton (guitar), Keith Williams (bass) and Johnny 'Catfish' Purser (drums).

Their first performance was at Stones Cabaret in Coogee, and by early 1957 they were playing four dances a week and also performing on Saturdays in the interval between films at the Embassy Theatre, Manly. Rock'n'roll was still a novelty in Australia, so the group began promoting their own rock'n'roll dances at local community halls and quickly attracted a strong local following, due in large measure to O'Keefe's magnetic persona and his dynamic stage performances.

The group's first break came in mid-1957 when expatriate American entrepreneur Lee Gordon booked them as the support act on the first Australian tour by O'Keefe's heroes, Bill Haley & The Comets. Haley was impressed by O'Keefe, giving him a song to record ("You Hit The Wrong Note, Billy Goat") and recommending him to Ken Taylor, A&R manager of leading local record company Festival Records. Taylor, however, failed to act on Haley's advice, so O'Keefe then famously took matters into his own hands and began telling the local press that he had in fact been signed to Festival. Anxious not to lose face, Taylor audtioned O'Keefe and signed him to the label.

O'Keefe's debut single (issued as a 78rpm record), "You Hit The Wrong Note, Billy Goat" b/w "The Chicken Song", was released in July 1957 but it failed to chart and sold poorly, as did the follow-up, "Love Letters In The Sand" -- which O'Keefe later described as the worst record of his career.

By this time O'Keefe had become a close friend of Lee Gordon and their rise to fame began after he and the Dee Jays were installed as the resident support act for Gordon's famous "Big Show" concert bills at the Sydney Stadium. These "Big Show" concerts were landmarks in Australian popular entertainment, being among the first tours to feature leading overseas rock'n'roll stars, including Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis; Gordon also toured many top jazz acts of the day, including the first visits to Australia by black jazz artists (such as Louis Armstrong) who had been prevented from touring Australia in previous years because of the White Australia Policy.

Commercial breakthrough

Thanks to his partnership with Gordon, O'Keefe and the Dee Jays gained crucial exposure with support spots on Gordon's first "Big Show" rock'n'roll tour, which starred [[Little Richard]], Gene Vincent, and Eddie Cochrane, followed by another all-star Big Show headlined by Buddy Holly (on his first and only Australian tour), Jerry Lee Lewis and Paul Anka.

By this time the lineup of the Dee Jays consisted of Owens, Johnny Greenan (sax), Lou Casch (guitar), Keith Williams (bass) and Johnny 'Catfish' Purser (drums) . Their first EP, Shakin' At The Stadium, included JOK's signature tune "Wild One", co-written by O'Keefe with Greenan, Owens and top Sydney DJ [[Tony Withers]. This became his first hit in March 1958, peaking at #20 on the newly established Sydney Top 40 (at this time there was no national pop chart in Australia).

O'Keefe issued three more singles during 1958 -- "Over The Mountain" b/w Lawdy Miss Clawdy", a cover of The Cuff Links "So Tough" b/w "That'll Be Alright" -- which reached #12 in Sydney -- and "I Ain't Gonna Do It" b/w Could This Be Magic?"

O'Keefe married Marianne Renate Willinzik, a 23-year-old hairdresser, at St Therese's Catholic Church, Dover Heights, on 2 August 1958 ; they had three children, but their relationship eventually foundered under the pressure of O'Keefe's career and his mental health problems, and they were divorced in 1966.

In February 1959, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation hired O'Keefe and The Dee Jays as the resident band on a new one-hour live television show Six O'Clock Rock which featured local artists. This was a rather daring departure from the ABC's mainstream entertainment programming, as its radio and TV outlets had featured little of the new rock'n'roll craze. After six episodes O'Keefe took over from the original host, Ricki Merriman, marking the beginning of the most successful phase of his career.

No doubt assisted by his high profile, O'Keefe scored two more Top 20 hits in the first half of 1959 with the singles "What Do Ya Know?" b/w "Peek-A-Boo" (#12, March 1959) and "Why Do They Doubt Our Love?" b/w "You Excite Me" (#9, May 1959).

At this point O'Keefe switched to Festival's new 'subsidiary' Leedon, an independent label established by Lee Gordon and distributed by Festival and from this point until the late 1960s, all O'Keefe's recordings came out on the Leedon label (in which O'Keefe had a share). He scored another hit in late 1959 with "Swanee River" / "The Steady Game" (#12, Oct. 1959).

His next two singles became two of the biggest and most enduring hits of his career. His second Leedon single was cover of The Isley Brothers' "Shout" (b/w "What'd I Say"), which reached #3 in November 1959, and it was followed by his first #1 single, "She's My Baby" / Own True Self", in January 1960.

"She's My Baby" had been recorded in Los Angeles with producer Ernie Freeman during O'Keefe's first visit to the USA in October 1959. The ambitious O'Keefe had by now set his sights on cracking the American market, and in L.A. he met with record exeuctive Mickey Shaw who signed him to a deal with Liberty Records.

In February 1960 O'Keefe returned to the U.S. for a promotional tour, where he was promoted as "The Boomerang Boy", and much to his chagrin, O'Keefe was obliged to give boomerang throwing exhibitions. According to Ian McFarlane, Liberty offered to pay $5 to anyone who could throw further than the singer, but they had to to pay out many times at one exhibition when O'Keefe turned up drunk.

O'Keefe undertook a gruelling tour that visited 35 states, but he made little impact, although "She's My Baby" reputedly sold more than 100,000 copies in the USA and his next single "It's Too Late" briefly reached #1 in New Orleans, but the tour eventually fizzled out as O'Keefe exhausted his finances.

On his return to Australia, "It's Too Late" became his eleventh Australian hit, but O'Keefe was totally broke and deeply depressed. But, ever the showman, he covered his US failure by buying a flashy imported Plymouth Belvedere on hire-purchase and began touring relentlessly up and down the east coast of Australia to pay off the car and replenish his finances, returning to Sydney every Saturday to present Six O'Clock Rock.

Car accident

O'Keefe insisted on driving himself and this almost cost him his life. In the early hours of 27 June 1960 he was driving back to Sydney from the Queensland Gold Coast, accompanied by Johnny Greenan and his pregant wife., About 20 kilometres north of Kempsey NSW O'Keefe fell asleep at the wheel of his Plymouth and poughed into the back of a gravel truck. All three were seriously injured and Greenan's wife suffered a miscarriage. O'Keefe suffered multiple lacerations and fractures to his head and face, he lost four teeth, and his hands were also badly lacerated.

A much repeated (though possibly apocryphal) story about the accident is attributed to his touring companion, singer Digby Richards, who was travelling behind O'Keefe in another car. Richards was the first to come on the scene of the accident, and according to legend, he was obliged to quickly remove O'Keefe's 'stash' of marijuana from its hiding place in the hubcap of the wrecked Plymouth before the police arrived at the scene. Whether this event took place true or not, it appears that O'Keefe was among the first Australian pop/rock performers to use marijuana, which was at that time still litte-known in Australia outside a small coterie of 'aficionados'.

Only six weeks later, and against doctors' orders, O'Keefe returned to work on Six O'Clock Rock. He subsequently had to undergo many gruelling operations to reconstruct his face, which left his appearance permanently changed. Despite his ordeal, he continued recording and scored another #1 hit in August 1960 with "Don't You Know / Come On And Ttake My Hand" and the next single, "Ready For You" / "Save The Last Dance For Me" reached #4 in November, although many believe he never fully recovered from the accident and that it was the catalyst for his subsequent mental health problems.

In January 1961 O'Keefe attempted another tour of the United States, but it too was unsuccessful. By this time O'Keefe was reaching the limits of his physical and mental endurance, and in all probability he was suffering from the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. After the second US tour collapsed, on impulse he flew to London, but he blacked out at the Park Lane Hotel and woke up three days later in St George's Hospital, London, where he had been admitted, suffering from "nervous collapse". By chance he was able to make contact with Lee Gordon, who happened to be in London at the time, and with Gordon's help he was released from hospital and returned to Australia.

His run of Australian hits continued in spite of his mounting personal problems -- "I'm Counting On You" became his second #1 hit in August 1961, followed by a third chart-topper, "Sing (And Tell The Blues So Long)" in March 1962 and "I Thank You", which reached #22 in December.

His tenure with Six O'Clock Rock ended in mid-1961, and in October he moved to ATN-7 as compere of the The Johnny O'Keefe Show. The show was a major success, but this only added to his already hectic workload and increased the pressure on him, and in August 1962 he suffered another breakdown and spent a month in the psychiatric ward at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, beginning what was to become a repeating cycle of well-publicised breakdowns, hospitalisation and recovery.

O'Keefe scored his fourth Australian #1 hit with "Move Baby Move" in June 1962, followed by "Shake Baby Shake" (#8, October '62) and "Twist It Up" which reached #32 in December '62.

Decline in popularity

The Seven network re-badged O'Keefe's show as Sing Sing Sing in February 1963 and it its popularity continued, but by late 1963 a new music trend from the UK known as Merseybeat was gaining momentum.

Within a few months the emergence of The Beatles would bring about about major changes in the Australian popular music scene, and the onset of "Beatlemania" and the emergence of the new wave of guitar/vocal groups led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones signalled a rapid decline in O'Keefe's career.

These overseas acts in turn inspired a new generation of local 'beat' stars, spearheaded by Bobby & Laurie, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Ray Brown & the Whispers, Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays, Normie Rowe and The Easybeats, who took the Australian pop scene by storm and (at least in Australia) soon came to rival the popularity of the biggest overseas acts.

But O'Keefe' resisted these changes, even banning "long-haired" groups (such as the The Missing Links) from appearing on Sing, Sing, Sing, but his popularity was now waning fast and by the end of 1964 the series had been cancelled.

His last major hit of the Sixties was in April 1964 (two months before the Beatles toured Australia) when "She Wears My Ring" reached #2 on the singles chart. However the follow-up single charted significantly lower, peaking at a modest #30, and titles of the two songs seemed, in retrospect, to presage the downturn in O'Keefe's career -- the A-side, "Rock'n'Roll Will Stand" was backed by a cover of the Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?".

From January to November 1967, O'Keefe compered a shortlived TV show called Where The Action Is broadcast on the newly-opened Channel TEN-10 and was filmed at various outdoor locations around Sydney. He also released an album titled Where The Action Is. But most of his time was now devoted to the burgeoning Australian club and cabaret circuit, and aside from the 1969 live LP Live On The Gold Coast, his only album releases were compilations of past hits, mostly issued on Festival's budget label Calendar.

O'Keefe doggedly continued recording however, and Festival issued a string of singles during the later 1960s, but only three made it into the Top 40 -- "Sun's Gonna Shine Tomorrow"(#38, May 1966), "Be Careful Of Stones That You Throw" (#28, August 1966) and a re-release of "She's May Baby" which reached #22 in August 1969.

The Seventies

Durign the late Sixties and into the Seventies O'Keefe's personal life became increasingly fraught -- his drug and alcohol use escalated, he suffered a series of highly-publicised breakdowns, he was involved in more car accidents. One of the biggest blows --albeit one for which he was primarily responsible -- was his divorce from his wife long-suffering Marianne Renate, whom he had married in 1958, which resulted in him being denied access to their children.

On the business front, O'Keefe had signed a new contract with Festival at the end of 1969 and continued to record and release singles, but it was not until July 1972 that he finally scored another hit with a re-recorded version of 1958 hit "So Tough", which reached #7 in September that year.

In January 1973 O'Keefe performed at the second Sunbury Pop Festival. MC Paul Hogan introduced him as a "newcomer" and urged the crowd to "give him a go", and although he was at first greeted with some jeering and booing, by the end of his set he had completely won over the crowd.

In early 1974 he scored his last big hit with a version of the Inez and Charlie Foxx song "Mockingbird" as a duet with vocalist Margaret McLaren and it became his 29th Australian hit, reaching #8 nationally in April 1974. It fared well against stiff competition from the better-known James Taylor-Carly Simon version that was rush-released in Australia to compete with it and many of O'Keefe's supporters claim that O'Keefe's version was deliberately ignored by commercial radio, in favour of its US rival.

In August 1974 O'Keefe put together a package tour called "The Good Old Days of Rock'n'Roll" which featured many of his old friends including Johnny Devlin, Lonnnie Lee, Jade Hurley, Barry Stanton, Tony Brady and Laurel Lee. It premiered at St George Leagues Club in Sydney and continued sucessfully for the next four years. O'Keefe continued to issue singles, including a cover of the Harry Vanda-George Young song "Saturday Night", originally recorded by The Easybeats.

Death and legacy

O'Keefe died of a heart attack on 6 October 1978, induced by an accidental overdose of prescribed drugs. O'Keefe had by this time become a heavy consumer of a wide range of drugs, and he reportedly carried a briefcase containing a large quantity of many types of prescription medications. At the time of this death it was widely reported that O'Keefe had become deeply depressed by the death of his idol Elvis Presley and had repeatedly remarked to friends that "I'll be next".

Since his death, O'Keefe's stature has continued to grow, and he was posthumously accorded the recognition he did not receive in his lifetime. A major biography was published in 1982, and in 1986 the Seven Network produced the successful 'docu-drama' mini-series based on his life, Shout! The Story of Johnny O'Keefe, which starred actor-singer Terry Serio as O'Keefe.

In 1987 punk legend Iggy Pop recorded a cover version of O'Keefe's signature tune "Wild One" under the title "Real Wild Child", which was included on his album Blah Blah Blah and released as a single. Samples from the Iggy Pop version were incorprated into the theme music for the ABC's long-running late-night music video show Rage, which premiered in 1987, and the opening credits of the show include footage of O'Keefe on stage.

In 1994 the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney recognised O'Keefe's contributions in a major exhibition of Australia's rock and pop history titled Real Wild Child and a comprehensive CD-ROM based on the exhibition, was later released with the same title.

Hit songs

• "She's My Baby"
• "Shout"
• "She Wears My Ring"
• "You'll Never Cherish A Love"
• "Move Baby Move"
• "Don't You Know"
• "Why Do They Doubt Our Love"
• "Come On And Take My Hand"
• "Sing, Sing, Sing"
• "So Tough"
• "Ready For You"

References

Other sources

• McFarlane, Ian, Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (Allen & Unwin, 1999)

External links

• Biography in the Australian Dictionary of Biographies Online Edition
• Johnny O'Keefe Home Page
• Unofficial Johnny O'Keefe Page
• Howlspace profile