Johnny Fuller (April 20, 1929 – May 20, 1985) was an American West Coast and

electric blues Electric blues is blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930s and John Lee Ho ...

singer and guitarist. Fuller showed musical diversity, performing in several musical genres including rhythm and blues,

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

and

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

. His distinctive singing and guitar playing appeared on a number of 1950s

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

recordings, although he ceased performing regularly by the late 1970s. He worked as an auto mechanic from 1968 to 1983. His best known recording, "Haunted House", was later

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of ...

with some success by

Jumpin' Gene Simmons Morris Eugene Simmons (July 10, 1937 – August 29, 2006), better known as Jumpin' Gene Simmons, was an American singer and songwriter best known for his 1964 novelty single "Haunted House". Biography Gene Simmons was born in Itawamba County, M ...

. His other better known tracks were "Crying Won't Make Me Stay", "All Night Long", "You Got Me Whistling" and "Johnny Ace's Last Letter." He is not to be confused with, nor was he related to, the American blues musician

Jesse Fuller Jesse Fuller (March 12, 1896 – January 29, 1976) was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues". Early life Fuller was born in Jonesboro, Georgia, near Atlanta, United States. He was sent by his moth ...

Biography

Fuller was born in

Edwards, Mississippi Edwards is a town in Hinds County, Mississippi, Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,034 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, down from 1,347 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jackson, Mississippi, Jackson J ...

. He relocated with his family to

Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California, United States, and the second largest city in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the ci ...

, in 1945. His musical styling often masked his upbringing in the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...

, but he spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area. As such, he is usually classified as a West Coast bluesman, although he did not stick with one particular genre. Fuller recorded for a number of

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

s, sometimes those associated with Bob Geddins. These included Heritage, Hollywood,

Flair Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) is a magnetic resonance imaging sequence with an inversion recovery set to null fluids. For example, it can be used in brain imaging to suppress cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) effects on the image, so as to ...

, Specialty,

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

, Imperial and

Checker Records Checker Records is a defunct record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary of Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Recorded T ...

. His debut recording was made in 1948 on the obscure Jaxyson record label, with a couple of gospel-based songs. In 1954, he began a regular recording career that lasted until 1962. He recorded twenty sides for Geddins in 1954 alone. Fuller had local hits with the singles "All Night Long" and the original version of "Haunted House," the latter of which was written and produced by Geddins. With his ability to switch styles, Fuller performed in late-1950s rock-and-roll package tours, on the same bill as

Paul Anka Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter and actor. His songs include " Diana", “ You Are My Destiny", “Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also wr ...

and

Frankie Avalon Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1940), better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American singer, actor and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' singles from 1958 to late 1962, including Record ...

. However, this same factor lost his black audience, and he was overlooked in the 1960s blues revival. In 1974, Fuller issued his debut album, ''Fuller's Blues'', which was well received but had little commercial success. Fuller played at the

San Francisco Blues Festival The San Francisco Blues Festival was active from 1973 until 2008, and was located in San Francisco, California. It was one of the longest running blues festival in the United States. History Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the bl ...

in 1973 and 1977. He later worked as a mechanic in a local garage. Fuller died of lung cancer in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, in May 1985, at the age of 56.

Discography

Albums

Singles

See "External links" for a full listing.

References

External links