Jersey History: He was Johnny Stark
Johnny Stark [1937-2021] toured hard with Connie Francis, Frankie Avalon, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Paul Anka, Eddie Cochran, Ritchie Valens, Gene Vincent, Little Anthony & The Imperials and Elvis Presley’s bassist Bill Black when he went solo in The Bill Black Combo. Elvis liked him. Reportedly, so did Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Stark played hard, lived fast, and was right up there in the 1950s rockabilly scene, only instead of Memphis, he was from Englewood. Yet he played the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, the Hollywood Palladium, American Bandstand on TV (where he performed his “Rockin’ Billy” hit) and the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where he got a standing ovation. An indie deal with Crystalette Records led to a Major Label debut on Liberty Records. His four-octave vocal range—and his private love of opera—set him apart. (He was classically trained as a child.)
He was born John G. Sticco in 1937, serving in the U.S. Air Force at 17, and moving to Hollywood at 19. His good looks almost made him into a movie star (at one point he signed on to act in a film called Johnny Reb). He was up for the role of Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather (a role that would ultimately go to Al Martino). Vocally, he could transition from rockabilly to rhythm’n’blues. Las Vegas crowds loved him, in fact, later in life, he wound up relocating to Vegas. He was a natural onstage. After recording “I Don’t Need No Doctor” for Gene Norman’s Crescendo Records, he played Reno and Lake Tahoe but he never reverted to a caricature of himself, like a lot of singers late in life. He retained that original rebel yell of rockabilly in his vocals. He even was brave enough to record a cover version of James Brown’s “I Feel Good” with The Tonight Show band plus Tommy Niesom and Chubby Jackson. Chubby’s son, drummer Duffy Jackson, who worked with Sammy Davis, Jr., heard him and flipped over this white guy who could sound black, eventually helping him get gigs at all-black shows. The dude had soul!
A stroke curtailed his career, and his life, at 84. He had kept singing right up to the very end. His son, Giovanni Sticco, is currently working on a documentary about his multi-talented father.