Johnny Tillotson’s big hit Poetry in Motion, which topped the British charts in January 1961 having reached No 2 in the US the month before, is the song that he will always be remembered for, but he was very far from being a one-hit wonder. Between 1959 and 1965, he scored four Top 10 hits on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, and in a career lasting more than 40 years, he placed a total of 26 singles on the Billboard charts.
Poetry in Motion was written by Mike Anthony and Paul Kaufman, and while its watching-girls-go-by lyric might not wash in today’s transformed social climate, the song was an ideal showcase for Tillotson’s supple, cheerful vocal, backed up by Boots Randolph’s exuberant saxophone and Floyd Cramer’s rippling piano.
Tillotson, who has died aged 86, was signed to the New York-based Cadence Records. They had released his own composition Dreamy Eyes as a single in 1958, which sold well in the local Florida market, and Tillotson had modest success with follow-ups True True Happiness, Why Do I Love You So and Earth Angel before he made his big splash with Poetry in Motion. He achieved a further milestone with It Keeps Right on A-Hurtin’, which he was inspired to write by his father’s terminal illness. A No 3 hit in 1962, it earned him a Grammy nomination. The song was subsequently recorded by more than 100 artists including Elvis Presley, Slim Whitman, Dean Martin and Billy Joe Royal.
Tillotson earned a second Grammy nomination, for best vocal performance of 1965, for Heartaches By the Number, Harlan Howard’s classic song also recorded by George Jones, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Bing Crosby among others.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnny was the son of Doris and Jack Tillotson, who ran a petrol station. His father was also a country music disc jockey, and Johnny gained some early exposure on his father’s radio show.
When he was nine, Johnny was sent to help care for his grandmother in Palatka, Florida, returning to Jacksonville during the summer when his brother, Dan, would take over at their grandmother’s. By the time he graduated from Palatka high school, Tillotson was becoming known as a singer across Florida, and he had drawn inspiration from seeing Elvis perform in Jacksonville in 1955. He was also given a boost by the songwriter and promoter Mae Axton, who co-wrote Elvis’s hit Heartbreak Hotel.
“Mae Axton lived in my home town,” he said. “She said: ‘I might be able to help you because we bring in those live packages. People like Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers. If you would like to be the opening act, it wouldn’t pay any money, but you would learn so much just from being around those people.’”
He managed to fit his musical aspirations around studying journalism and composition at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and as well as performing onstage he had his own music show on the regional TV station WFGA-TV. Wider horizons opened up when a local DJ entered one of his tapes into a country and western talent contest sponsored by PET Milk (makers of a brand of evaporated milk) in 1957. Tillotson was invited to Nashville as one of six finalists, where he performed on the Grand Ole Opry radio programme.
He acquitted himself well enough to impress the music publisher Lee Rosenberg, who put him in touch with Archie Bleyer, founder of the Cadence label. He listened to Tillotson’s tape of three of his own songs, and signed the singer to a three-year recording contract. Tillotson later reflected that “The late 50s were a great time to get into the record business because the independents were just coming into the world … I decided I would rather be with a small company and a person who put the songs first than a large company where you get lost.”
After Cadence had gone into decline following the departure of mainstay acts the Everly Brothers and Andy Williams, Tillotson formed his own production company and in 1963 leased his recordings to MGM records. He rerecorded many of his hits in a variety of languages including Spanish, German, Italian and Japanese, as well as songs specifically aimed at overseas territories. He had an Italian hit with Non a Caso il Destino (Ci Ha Fatto Incontrare), which he performed at the 1965 Sanremo music festival, and topped the Japanese chart twice, with Namida Kun Sayonara (Goodbye Mr Tears) and You and Me (both 1965).
Tillotson enjoyed some success in other media. He sang the title song (Wait ’Til You See) My Gidget for the TV sitcom Gidget (1965-66), starring Sally Field, and appeared in the films Just for Fun (1963) alongside Bobby Vee, and 1966’s The Fat Spy (with Jayne Mansfield, though Tillotson was disappointed that he never actually met her). In the 70s Tillotson returned to music full-time, making regular club appearances in the US and touring internationally.
A daughter, Kelli, died in a car crash in 1991. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Nancy, their son, John, a stepdaughter, Genevieve, and four grandchildren, Nia, Jackson, Georgia and Gwyneth, and by Dan.
• Johnny Tillotson, singer and songwriter, born 20 April 1938; died 1 April 2025
