Early Years
Johnson is the only son of Richard Johnson (timber contractor) and Elinor Johnson (post office / telephone exchange operator) and began his singing career in Rockhampton with the Candymen. In the early 1960s he worked for the Queensland Department of Roads as a clerk; playing and singing at night and writing songs in any spare time. Some of his songs came to the notice of rock and roll star Col Joye who signed him to his publishing company. Johnson relocated to Sydney and recorded his first single, "Hayman Island" in 1967 on Joye's ATA label. He followed with "Woman You Took My Life" in 1968 but neither single had any chart success. In 1969, he signed with independent label, Sweet Peach. His first hit single "Bonnie Please Don't Go" aka "She's Leavin'" from 1971, peaked at #12 in Melbourne, #2 in Sydney and #15 nationally.
Read more about this topic: Kevin Johnson (singer)
Famous quotes containing the words early years, early and/or years:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“In that second it dawned on me that I had been living here for eight years with a strange man and had borne him three children.”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)