Johnny Mercer Historical Marker, Savannah

Johnny was born in Savannah, Georgia, on November 18, 1909. His father was an attorney and had a real-estate business, and he had a sister and three half brothers. When Johnny was growing up most people used horse-drawn carriages or wagons, streets may not have been paved, and there was no television . Music was a big source of entertainment for everyone, and Johnny was no different. When he was growing up his mother would sing ballads, and his father would sing turn-of-the-century standards.

Christ Church, Savannah

When he was six years old Johnny began singing in the choir at Christ Church, the church his family attended.  He sang there until he left Savannah 11 years later, and was always entertaining his family and friends with performances. Johnny went anywhere he could to hear music.  He said, “I was always drawn to music and once followed a band around the town when I was six, which my mother must have found difficult to understand. And of course songs always fascinated me more than anything.”

Phonograph

Before the age of CDs and iPods, the Mercer family relied on a Victrola phonograph to listen to music records. Johnny was constantly going to record stores to hear new music.  In these stores, he would often listen to music by African-American musicians – kept separate from music by white performers during the time of segregation.

His family had a second home on Burnside Island, outside of Savannah. The family would spend summers there, his father driving the Model T automobile back and forth into Savannah each day to go to work. Their home backed up to the Back River, which was later renamed Moon River after one of Johnny’s most famous songs, and Johnny and his friends would pass their days exploring the island’s wilderness. The beauty of the island would stay with Johnny for the rest of his life, and he would often draw on images and experiences from this time when writing lyrics.

Massie School, Savannah

Growing up in Savannah, Johnny attended Massie School in the city. Once he got to high school, he followed in his father and grandfather’s footsteps and went to Virginia to attend the Woodberry Forest School. Here Johnny continued filling his “scribbler” books, experimenting with writing songs and poems, sketching and testing out rhyming word pairs as he embarked on his journey to becoming a lyricist. He also participated in literary and poetry clubs and was known for his humor writing.

Despite his love of music and his interest in writing songs and lyrics, Johnny never learned how to play an instrument. His parents continually encouraged him learn piano or trumpet, but he didn’t pursue it. He was afraid the other boys would think he was a sissy if he played piano, and he didn’t want to take the time to learn how to form his mouth to play trumpet! Even as he became a successful singer and songwriter, he never learned to read or write music properly, either writing lyrics to harmonies that were already written or using his own notations if he came up with the musical tune to accompany his lyrics.

Vocabulary

Attorney – Another word for lawyer, a profession where one conduct lawsuits or  advises clients as to legal rights and obligations in other matters

Ballad – a popular song, especially one that is slow and/or romantic in nature

Choir – an organized group of singers, especially one for a church service

Lyricist – one who writes the lyrics or words for a song

Phonograph - an instrument that reproduces sounds by means of the vibration of a needle following a spiral groove on a revolving disc or cylinder, such as a record

Standard - a song that is continually played and used in popular culture, often rerecorded and/ or performed by different artists

Segregation – the social separation of whites and African-Americans in the years following the Civil War until the Civil Rights Movement

Teaching Tips

Have students research technology from the early 20th century, such as the Model T, phonograph, and records and write an essay comparing similar technological innovations of the early 21st century.

As a class, pick a topic and have everyone participate in writing lyrics to an existing harmony. Songs could be set to something simple such as the tune for “Happy Birthday” or more complex like a pop song that most or all students will know. Show students how they can use a dictionary and rhyming dictionary to find words that work together, while still keeping on the song’s topic.

Sources

Gene Lees, Portrait of Johnny: The Life of John Herndon Mercer, (Pantheon, 2004), 26, 27

Philip Furia, Skylark: The Life and Times of Johnny Mercer (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003). 17, 1, 19, 20

The New Georgia Encyclopedia , Johnny Mercer