Johnny Richard Duncan (October 5, 1938 – August 14, 2006) was an American country music singer, best known for a string of hits in the mid- to late 1970s. In his career, he released 14 studio albums, including thirteen on Columbia Records. These albums produced more than 30 chart singles, with three of those reaching number one.He also wrote many songs recorded by artists such as, Charley Pride, Marty Robbins, Chet Atkins, Conway Twitty, and Jim Ed Brown.
Duncan was born in the farm town of Dublin, Texas. Before he went to Nashville, Duncan attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He then spent a few years in Clovis, New Mexico. Duncan's early life was steeped in West Texas music. He picked this up naturally as a boy listening to his mother play rhythm guitar in his uncle's country band. Later, he began sharpening his vocal skills, influenced by his early idols Eddy Arnold, Perry Como, Jim Reeves, and Frank Sinatra. Johnny was born into a musical family.
He was very proud of his talented and famous cousins, including Eddie Seals, Jimmy Seals of Seals & Crofts, and country singer Dan Seals. "He knew when he was 12 years old that playing music and singing songs was going to be his life", said his wife, Connie Duncan. After playing and singing with his musically gifted family for a few years, he auditioned demos in April 1959 for Norman Petty in Clovis, NM. Norman recognized his talent as a gifted songwriter and Johnny was soon signed to Leader Records, a subsidiary of the Kapp Records label.
After 3 US singles and 1 UK release between 1959 and 1962 saw little action. In 1964 Johnny grew tired of the intent to market him as a pop vocalist and he decided to pursue the country genre and moved to Nashville and worked a DJ and performed on local morning TV shows before landing a guest spot on Ralph Emery's television show in 1966. That led to a deal with Columbia Records, which released his debut single, "Hard Luck Joe," in 1967. Duncan had a few minor chart entries over the next few years, including two duets with June Stearns, but nothing that could be considered a breakout hit
That all changed when Duncan hooked up with the famed Nashville sound producer Billy Sherrill. Singles like 1972's "Baby's Smile, Woman's Kiss" and 1973's Top Ten "Sweet Country Woman" started to establish him as a hitmaker. However, his marriage subsequently broke up, and the distraught Duncan returned to Texas.
He was talked back into the music business for the single "Jo and the Cowboy," which paired him with a then-unknown Janie Fricke, and the song was successful enough that Sherrill decided to feature her on some of Duncan's subsequent recordings, many of which were highly successful.
Their songs "Thinking of a Rendezvous" and "It Couldn't Have Been Any Better" both went to No. 1number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. Sordid barroom sagas like "Stranger" and "Thinkin' of a Rendezvous" made Duncan a star, with the former becoming his first Top Five hit and the latter his first-ever number one in 1976.
1977's "It Couldn't Have Been Any Better" was his second chart-topper, and his first credited duet with Fricke, "Come a Little Bit Closer," went Top Five the following year. Duncan also scored two big hits of his own in 1978 with the Top Five "Hello Mexico (And Adios Baby to You)" and the number one "She Can Put Her Shoes Under My Bed (Anytime)."
His last Top Ten appearances came in 1979 with "Slow Dancing" and "The Lady in the Blue Mercedes," and he even enjoyed another top-20 hit with Fricke in 1980 with a duet version of Michael Jackson's "She's Out of My Life" after which his commercial momentum abruptly halted. He and Columbia parted ways in the early '80s, and he subsequently remarried and returned to Texas.
He recorded a bit for small labels during the '80s and '90s, cutting a couple of singles in 1986 although his biggest songs were popular on country radio through the late 1980s and early 1990s.
During the early 90’s, having to split time between Nashville and his Stephenville farm home, Duncan and his family moved back to Texas to live on a farm not far from the town of Dublin, where Duncan was born.
Duncan released his final album,” The Thing To Do”, in 2004 and was planning an autumn tour before he succumbed to a heart attack on August 14, 2006. at a Fort Worth Texas hospital, at the age of 67. Duncan has three daughters with his first wife, Betty Deisher, and one son with wife Connie Duncan.
(Edited from Wikipedoia, AllMusic & Billboard)
N.B. Not to be confused with the American expatriate and British skiffle star of the same name.