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Portrait of Johnny: The Life of John Herndon Mercer
An intimate biography of the great songwriter, this is also a deeply affectionate memoir by one of Johnny Mercer’s best friends.
“Moon River,” “Laura,” “Skylark,” ”That Old Black Magic,” “One for My Baby,” “Accentuate the Positive,” “Satin Doll,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “Something’s Gotta Give”—the honor roll of Mercer’s songs is endless. Both Oscar Hammerstein II and Alan Jay Lerner called him the greatest lyricist in the English language, and he was perhaps the best-loved and certainly the best-known songwriter of his generation. But Mercer was also a complicated and private man.
A scion of an important Savannah family that had lost its fortune, he became a successful Hollywood songwriter (his primary partners included Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern), a hit recording artist, and, as co-founder of Capitol Records, a successful businessman, but he remained forever nostalgic for his idealized childhood (with his “huckleberry friend”). A gentleman, a nasty drunk, funny, tender, melancholic, tormented—Mercer was a man immensely talented yet plagued by
self-doubt, much admired and loved but never really understood.
In music historian and songwriter Gene Lees, Mercer has his perfect biographer, who deals tactfully but directly with Mercer’s complicated relationships with his domineering mother; his tormenting wife, Ginger; and Judy Garland, who was the great love of his life. Lees’s highly personal examination of Mercer’s life is sensitive as only the work of a friend of many years could be to the conflicts in Mercer’s nature. And it is filled with insights into Mercer’s work that could come only from a fellow lyricist (whose own lyrics were much admired by Mercer).
A poignant, candid, revelatory portrait of Johnny.
“Moon River,” “Laura,” “Skylark,” ”That Old Black Magic,” “One for My Baby,” “Accentuate the Positive,” “Satin Doll,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “Something’s Gotta Give”—the honor roll of Mercer’s songs is endless. Both Oscar Hammerstein II and Alan Jay Lerner called him the greatest lyricist in the English language, and he was perhaps the best-loved and certainly the best-known songwriter of his generation. But Mercer was also a complicated and private man.
A scion of an important Savannah family that had lost its fortune, he became a successful Hollywood songwriter (his primary partners included Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern), a hit recording artist, and, as co-founder of Capitol Records, a successful businessman, but he remained forever nostalgic for his idealized childhood (with his “huckleberry friend”). A gentleman, a nasty drunk, funny, tender, melancholic, tormented—Mercer was a man immensely talented yet plagued by
self-doubt, much admired and loved but never really understood.
In music historian and songwriter Gene Lees, Mercer has his perfect biographer, who deals tactfully but directly with Mercer’s complicated relationships with his domineering mother; his tormenting wife, Ginger; and Judy Garland, who was the great love of his life. Lees’s highly personal examination of Mercer’s life is sensitive as only the work of a friend of many years could be to the conflicts in Mercer’s nature. And it is filled with insights into Mercer’s work that could come only from a fellow lyricist (whose own lyrics were much admired by Mercer).
A poignant, candid, revelatory portrait of Johnny.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published October 26, 2004
6 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Gene Lees
42 books6 followersFrederick Eugene John Lees (February 8, 1928 – April 22, 2010) was a Canadian music critic, biographer, lyricist, and journalist.
Lees worked as a newspaper journalist in his native Canada before moving to the United States, where he was a music critic and lyricist.
Lees worked as a newspaper journalist in his native Canada before moving to the United States, where he was a music critic and lyricist.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 6, 2013
Autumn Leaves, Moon River, Blues In The Night, The Days Of Wine And Roses, One For My Baby, Accentuate The Positive ….and that’s only a few. The tip of the iceberg. Check out the Wikipedia entry on Johnny Mercer. The greatest and best known of his works are mentioned in the text of the entry while later in the article there is a supplemental list of tunes not already mentioned. Along the way he collaborated with Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, Henry Mancini, Gordon Jenkins. Again – to name only a few. Pretty impressive! What a body of work! Mercer’s lyrics were intelligent and clever. Capable of delivering great emotion but at other times humorous and a little satiric (as in “I’m An Old Cowhand” - a swing era classic poking a little fun at country music.)
Johnny sang well also and first came to prominence while working for bandleader Paul Whiteman in the early 30s. Other Whiteman alumnae were Bix Beiderbecke, Bing Crosby and Jack Teagarden.
In the mid-1940s, with two partners, he started Capitol Records and for the next decade or so ran a record company that brought first Nat “King” Cole to prominence and then Frank Sinatra in the 50s - Sinatra’s comeback. Again – to name just two. Capitol records, during Johnny’s tenure, was known for financial and artistic integrity and for state of the art audio.
Gene Lees (a talented lyricist and music scholar in his own right) knew Johnny personally and was asked by Johnny’s widow to see if he could put anything together from the manuscript of an autobiography Johnny was working on. Gene found the paper work disorganized and rambling but an invaluable first hand source. It was the basis for much of this work.
Johnny sang well also and first came to prominence while working for bandleader Paul Whiteman in the early 30s. Other Whiteman alumnae were Bix Beiderbecke, Bing Crosby and Jack Teagarden.
In the mid-1940s, with two partners, he started Capitol Records and for the next decade or so ran a record company that brought first Nat “King” Cole to prominence and then Frank Sinatra in the 50s - Sinatra’s comeback. Again – to name just two. Capitol records, during Johnny’s tenure, was known for financial and artistic integrity and for state of the art audio.
Gene Lees (a talented lyricist and music scholar in his own right) knew Johnny personally and was asked by Johnny’s widow to see if he could put anything together from the manuscript of an autobiography Johnny was working on. Gene found the paper work disorganized and rambling but an invaluable first hand source. It was the basis for much of this work.
November 26, 2023
Skipping around -- this is very personal, as the author was a friend, not just a writer/historian.
3.49 stars marked down to three by Goodreads.
Read/skimmed/cherry-picked through this, skipping the earliest parts about his family background, already familiar from other sources.
Not a very good book for research, as it's not particularly structured nor highly organized. No chapter headings. Roughly in chronological order but not strictly so. Included selections from Mercer's unpublished autobiography, as organized by Lees at Ginger Mercer's request. Poor Ginger -- she ends messily, in thrall to a gigolo, and isn't spared by the author.
Am still reading the more scholarly Mercer bio by Eskew, so may have more to say about this one later. But at this point I'll call Mr. Lees's book more enjoyable and more revealing but perhaps not as useful for generating factual knowledge.
11/26/23 -- having completed the Eskew biography, I will modify the above statement that the Lees book is 'more enjoyable.' It's enjoyable in a different way, but the Eskew book is a more valuable biography and is better at putting Mercer in the context of his times and in history.
3.49 stars marked down to three by Goodreads.
Read/skimmed/cherry-picked through this, skipping the earliest parts about his family background, already familiar from other sources.
Not a very good book for research, as it's not particularly structured nor highly organized. No chapter headings. Roughly in chronological order but not strictly so. Included selections from Mercer's unpublished autobiography, as organized by Lees at Ginger Mercer's request. Poor Ginger -- she ends messily, in thrall to a gigolo, and isn't spared by the author.
Am still reading the more scholarly Mercer bio by Eskew, so may have more to say about this one later. But at this point I'll call Mr. Lees's book more enjoyable and more revealing but perhaps not as useful for generating factual knowledge.
11/26/23 -- having completed the Eskew biography, I will modify the above statement that the Lees book is 'more enjoyable.' It's enjoyable in a different way, but the Eskew book is a more valuable biography and is better at putting Mercer in the context of his times and in history.
August 26, 2007
This book reaffirms what many of us suspect: great achievement in the entertainment industry often comes at a very high price. It details the story of Johnny Mercer as a lyrical genius, astute businessman, and "sentimental gentleman from Georgia" trapped in a world of melancolia, alcoholism, anger, and marital discord. The author, Gene Lees, is a lyricist and music industry insider. He uses detailed interviews with friends, family, and colleagues as well as Mercer's unpublished autobiography to tell this complex story. In all, an often dark, yet well-balanced, interesting book; an essential for Great American Songbook fans.
February 27, 2024
The history of American music written by Johnny.
October 10, 2012
Excellent biography of a terrific songwriter. The best of the Mercer biographies, and, so I was told by a member of Mercer's family, it is the biography that is the most accurate in terms of fact.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews