Jump to content
Gameday Tigers

John Fred Gourrier, Happy Heavenly Birthday!


LSUDad

Recommended Posts

  • 8 months later...
  • 3 months later...

Happy Heavenly Birthday to Baton Rouge's "King of Rock 'n Roll".....John Fred Gourrier...."Fred," along with his "Playboy Band" made the town proud by delivering  a No. 1 song in not only the country, but all across the world with their  1968 hit  "Judy in the Disguise.".....John Fred, who graduated from Catholic High School, passed away in 2005. He would have been 81 today.
 

35946374-5074-40A8-A91E-2563C99C9A2F.jpeg.fde477eb9999e445a06d6572c83218e5.jpeg

 

4BCF9FBF-D826-4C8B-8378-5D5DDC9947BC.jpeg.bedb8fa0e93930f27726a6ee0634278b.jpeg

 

EB1DA4E6-64DE-410C-B31B-F6E62E0784C5.thumb.jpeg.7f2b383d2ebb9347da8707977054dfb0.jpeg

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

It was 55 years ago today (January 20,1968) that John Fred and The Playboy Band knocked the Beatles off the top of the Billboard ‘Hot 100’ Charts, with their song “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses).” The song (co-written by John Fred Gourrier (lyrics) and Andrew Bernard (arrangement)), which none of the band ‘really liked,’ became the No.1 song in the country!…and sold a whopping 5 million copies! It repeated as No. 1 the following week and appeared in the Billboard ‘Top 10’ for eight weeks and 16 weeks total in the Hot 100.
 Gourrier got the song’s initial idea while the band was performing down in Florida. He kept  seeing all the girls with ‘big sunglasses.’ He originally was going to call her “Beverly,” but as he once stated, “It just didn’t flow you know.” John Fred admitted he was parodying another Beatle hit from 1967, “Lucy in the Sky (With Diamonds).”
After making visits to perform on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” and three days later on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” the “Playboys’ head to Europe for a tour and while there, met The Beatles at Apple Studios in London.
Paul McCartney quipped to John Fred, “The first thing I'm going to do when I get home is to write a song called 'Froggy in a Pond with Spectacles.”
John Fred Gourrier died in April of  2005 at the age of 63, while Andrew Bernard died in May of  2021 at the age of 77. Drummer Joe  Micelli, bass player Harold “Hog” Cowart and Charlie Spinosa have also past away. The only surviving  members are Tommy deGeneres, Ronnie Goodson, Jimmy O’Rourke and manger Lynn Ourso.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...