John David "Moon" Martin (October 31, 1945 – May 11, 2020)
was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Early years
Born in
Altus, Oklahoma, United States, he was originally a
rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...
artist as a member of the Oklahoma-based band The Disciples, who moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
and adopted the name Southwind in 1967. At this time, their style shifted towards
country rock
Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal sty ...
.
Southwind released three studio albums before disbanding in 1971.
They enjoyed moderate success, with two of their singles charting nationally: "Ready to Ride" (No. 127 in 1969) and "Boogie Woogie Country Girl" (No. 105 in 1970).
Peak of success
Martin gained recognition in the 1970s as a
pop artist and
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
. He wrote the
song
A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...
s "
Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)
"Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)" is a 1978 song, written and originally recorded by Moon Martin and sung a year later by Robert Palmer. The song became one of Palmer's definitive hits.
Background
Moon Martin originally recorded the son ...
", made famous by the English singer
Robert Palmer, and "Cadillac Walk", made famous by the American singer
Willy DeVille.
Martin scored five minor
hits of his own with "Rolene" (No. 30 US, No. 77 Australia
[), "No Chance" (No. 50 US), both in 1979, "Signal for Help" (No. 60 Australia) in 1981, "X-ray Vision", (No. 99) and "Aces With You" (No. 95) both in Australia in 1982. His 1982 song, "X-Ray Vision" was an ]MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
hit music video
A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
.[
]
Personal life and death
He allegedly was given the nickname "Moon" because many of his songs had the word moon in the lyrics.[Prato, Greg]
Moon Martin Biography
, ''AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
''. Retrieved November 23, 2013
Martin died on May 11, 2020, of natural causes in Encino, California
Encino is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.
History Etymology
The name Encino is the misspelling in masculine of Encina, the Spanish language, Spanish word for "holm oak” (Quercus ilex). The Spanis ...
, at the age of 74.
Discography
Studio albums
Live album
* ''Bad News Live'' (1993, Fnac France)
Compilation albums
* ''The Very Best Of'' (1999, EMI Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
, 1978-1982)
* ''Shots from a Cold Nightmare + Escape from Domination'' (1995, EMI Special Markets, Demon Records)
* ''Street Fever + Mystery Ticket'' (1995, EMI Special Markets, Edsel Records)
Singles
References
External links
Moon Martin
at VH1
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Moon
1945 births
2020 deaths
American male singer-songwriters
People from Altus, Oklahoma
Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma