1953


trade paper immortality

Johnny Ace, Still Love You So.

This, a posthumous release for Johnny Ace in 1956, was actually recorded three years before, in the midst of Ace's rapid upward trajectory. In early 1952 Ace was a minor regional musician known mainly in the Memphis area; two years later, he had become a national name, his records promoted by Alan Freed, and he was set to be one of the first great rock & roll figures.

Then he accidentally killed himself playing Russian roulette backstage at a 1954 Christmas show in Houston. Along with James Dean's death in 1955, this would inaugurate the run of great pop star death worship cults, which would devolve, as the years went on, into the various sects of Paul is Dead and Jim Morrison is Alive and Elvis has Risen Again, down into the Cobain and Shakur manias of the past decade.

Johnny Ace recorded a mere 21 tracks during his brief life--"Still Love You So" (recorded in August 1953 but released as Duke 154 in 1956 as Ace's last-ever single) is one of his finest, a moody record sung hypnotically. On Memorial Album.

As a kid reviewer on Amazon put it, "I wish he made more music and I wish he didn't die."