An unsung musical hero

Johnny Cooper, musician, b 1928, Wairoa; d Septemer 2014, Lower Hutt. Johnny Cooper, who died in Lower Hutt this week, may have not only been one of the most unsung, but also one of the most modest heroes New Zealand popular music has ever had. As a country singer in the early 1950s, billing himself as "The Maori Cowboy" he had big hits, and one, "Look What You've Done", which he wrote himself, became the quintessential Kiwi party song until "Ten Guitars" arrived. It's the song Jake and Beth Heke duet on in the movie "Once Were Warriors." In 1955, with a group of Wellington jazz men, he became the first singer outside the United States to record a rock and roll song, cutting "Rock Around The Clock" in HMV's Lower Hutt studios. His follow-up, "Pie Cart Rock and Roll", wasn't such a big hit, despite the magic chorus "Rockin' to the rhythm of the pea, pie and pud". He turned his hand to promoting talent quests, where his discoveries included the country's first rock and roll idol, Johnny Devlin, Midge Marsden (who played in Bari and The Breakaways as a backing band for contestants) and the Fourmulya, whose song "Nature would be judged the greatest New Zealand rock song of all time. Johnny himself was a friendly, deeply modest man, with a beautiful Billy T James laugh, and a good line in self depreciation. His pie cart song, he'd claim, was written in the hopes of free feeds while he was living in Whanganui. As a promoter, working in a field not famous for people with generous spirits, he was decent and honest. Those of us who had any dealings with him hold fond memories, and mourn his loss. http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/10468041/An-unsung-musical-hero PHIL GIFFORD Last updated 10:52 06/09/2014