From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Jul 20, 2002  6:55 pm
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Plas Johnson
 
PLAS JOHNSON

Born 21 July 1931, Donaldsonville, Louisiana

With all due respect for King Curtis, Lee Allen, Boots Randolph and
a few others, the list of my favourite saxophone players is topped by
Plas Johnson. Though a jazzman at heart, he plays on countless rock
& roll records from the fifties. After being taught soprano saxophone
by his father, Johnson took up the tenor as well. Born in Louisiana,
he moved to Los Angeles in 1954 and soon became one of the most
in-demand session musicians on the West Coast. He has made plenty
of recordings on his own, for a variety of labels, among them Tampa
(where his best record was "Bluejean Shuffle", in 1956) and Capitol,
but he had no hits under his own name.
In the sixties his film and television work increased and his work (though
not his name) became known to millions when he was featured playing
the main title theme on the soundtrack of "The Pink Panther" (1964),
credited to Henry Mancini's Orchestra. From the mid-sixties on, he
concentrated more and more on jazz.

A very selective list of records that feature the sax of Plas Johnson:

Irving Ashby, Big Guitar
Jimmy Beasley, Near You, Ella Jane
Boots Brown, Cerveza
B. Bumble and the Stingers, Apple Knocker, Scales
The Cadets, Stranded In The Jungle, Dancin' Dan
Wynona Carr, Bippity Bop, Should I Ever Love Again, Till The Well Runs Dry
The Charts, Ooba Gooba / For The Birds
Eugene Church, Pretty Girls Everywhere, Miami, Open Up Your Heart
The Coasters, Searchin' / Young Blood, Ridin' Hood
Eddie Cochran, Teenage Heaven, My Way
Bobby Day, Rockin' Robin (piccolo), Mr & Mrs Rock & Roll
Fats Domino, Margie, If You Need Me (1958 version)
Don and Dewey, Koko Joe, Justine, Bim Bam
Duane Eddy, Movin' and Groovin', Ramrod
Ernie Fields, In the Mood, virtually all other Rendezvous tracks
The Flares, Foot Stompin'
Ernie Freeman, Raunchy / Puddin', Dumplin's
Rene Hall, Flippin' / Twitchy, Thunderbird
Thurston Harris, Do What You Did
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, What That Is! LP
Bobby Hendricks, Itchy Twitchy Feeling
Hollywood Flames, Buzz Buzz Buzz
Roddy Jackson, Hiccups
Jan & Arnie, Jennie Lee, Gas Money
Jan & Dean, Baby Talk
Little Richard, The Girl Can't Help It, Lifetime Friend LP
Sonny Lowery, Goodbye Baby
The Marketts, Out of Limits LP, Surfers Stomp LP
Ricky Nelson, I'm Walkin' (Verve), More Songs by Ricky LP
Sandy Nelson, Imperial LP's Teen Beat, Let There Be Drums, Teenage House Party,
Sandy Nelson Plays
Johnny Otis, The Johnny Otis Show LP, Bye Bye Baby, Ring-a-Ling
Earl Palmer, Twisty Hits LP
The Pets, Cha-Hua-Hua / Cha-Kow-Ski
The Piltdown Men, McDonald's Cave, The Great Impostor
The Platters, The Great Pretender, It Isn't Right
Googie Rene Combo, Wiggle Tail (and many others)
The Routers, LP's Let's Go, Charge, Chuck Berry Songbook
Gene Summers, Gotta Lotta That
Art and Dotty Todd, Chanson D'Amour
Big "T" Tyler, King Kong / Sadie Green
Gene Vincent, Say Mama, Sounds like Gene Vincent LP
Larry Williams, Bony Moronie, Slow Down, The Dummy, Here's Larry Williams LP
Sheb Wooley, The Purple People Eater
Young Jessie, Here Comes Henry, Shuffle In The Gravel / Make Believe

There are several Plas Johnson CD's on the market, but they are all
in the jazz field, except "The Best Of Plas Johnson" on Wolf, which I
haven't heard, but looks interesting. In the eighties Pathe-Marconi issued
an LP "Rockin' With The Plas : The Capitol Singles", which has not been
reissued on CD, to the best of my knowledge. Some Tampa tracks can
be found on scattered compilations ("Bluejean Shuffle" is on "Teen Beat,
Vol. 3", Ace 602).
Further reading: Repeating Echoes with Plas Johnson, Now Dig This 215
(February 2001), page 9-12.
Official website: http://www.plasjohnson.com