The No1 song in the US on this day, January 20th 1968, was Judy In The Sky (With Glasses) by John Fred And His Playboy Band . It remained at No1 for two weeks and was their only No1 hit. It peaked at No3 in the UK. This was a parody of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, which The Beatles released a year earlier. Instead of the psychedelic sound of the Beatles song, this was Bubblegum Pop, but with similarly obtuse lyrics. According to John Fred, John Lennon loved the song. Said Fred: When I met John Lennon, thats the first thing he asked me. He thought it was great. He said the first thing he was going to do when he got home was write a song called Froggy in a Pond with Spectacles. At first, the girl in this song was named Beverly, but Fred changed it to Judy because it was much easier to sing and went along with the Lucy from the song he was parodying. The lyric, Cross your heart with a living bra was very strange, but this was a strange song. Fred was writing lyrics while watching TV, and he cribbed the line from a Playtex commercial. This song was also recorded by Tommy Roe. He did have some popular, non-parody songs in Louisiana with titles like Up and Down, and She Shot a Hole in My Soul. His song Shirley also did well locally, and was a #6 hit in the UK for Shakin Stevens in 1982. Following Judy In Disguise (with Glasses), Fred got a deal with UNI records, who also signed the unknown talents Neil Diamond and Elton John. His follow-up song was Hey, Hey Bunny, which failed to chart. With the label putting most of their efforts into Elton John, Freds career stalled. He worked for a record company for a while, in the early 80s returned to music, once again touring the south. He died on April 15, 2005 at age 63 due to complications from a kidney transplant. Heres John Fred And His Payboy Band performing Judy In The Sky (With Glasses)..... Enjoy!
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 18:47:11 +0000
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