Born 88 Years Ago Today in Texas, the DJ Turned Country Star Who Scored a String of Hits in the 1970s

On this day (October 5) in 1938, John Richard “Johnny” Duncan was born in Dublin, Texas. In addition to a pair of number-one duets with Janie Fricke — “Thinking of a Rendezvous” and “It Couldn’t Have Been Any Better” — Duncan also scored a solo chart-topper with 1978’s “She Can Put Her Shoes Under My Bed (Anytime)”. Enjoying a period of chart success during the 1970s, he sent seven more singles to the U.S. country top 10.

Johnny Duncan died of a heart attack on August 14, 2006 at age 67 in Fort Worth, Texas. Today, we’re remembering his life and career on what would have marked his 88th birthday.

Johnny Duncan Had Some Famous Cousins

Growing up in a musical family, Johnny Duncan’s cousins Jimmy and Dan Seals also made their mark in country music. Jimmy was one half of the soft-rock duo Seals & Croft, while Dan gained fame as part of another soft-rock pairing, England Dan & John Ford Coley.

Influenced by crooners such as Eddy Arnold, Frank Sinatra, and Perry Como, Duncan also grew up watching his mother play rhythm guitar in his uncle’s country music band.

She passed those skills along to her son, and Duncan performed with them, Jim, and Dan at dance halls around the small farm town of Dublin.

“He knew when he was 12 years old that playing music and singing songs was going to be his life”, the singer’s wife, Connie Duncan, told the Dallas Morning News after his death in 2006.

Getting His Start

After majoring in English at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Johnny Duncan married his first wife and moved to Clovis, New Mexico in 1959. He recorded some pop-leaning demos with producer Norm Petty before signing with Leader Records.

When nothing came of that, Duncan spent several years as a DJ before moving his family to Nashville in 1964. There, he worked odd jobs in construction and radio.

As an on-air personality and jingle singer at a radio station in Franklin, Duncan had ample opportunities to pitch his songs to various country stars. Marty Robbins, Conway Twitty, and Charley Pride would go on to record some of his material.

In 1966, Duncan landed a guest spot on Ralph Emery’s morning show on WSM-TV Nashville. This led to a contract with Columbia Records, with whom he released his debut album, Johnny One Time, in 1968.

His Big Break

After little success initially, Johnny Duncan partnered with producer Billy Sherrill. He first reached the top 10 with 1973’s “Sweet Country Woman”.

In the mid-1970s, he teamed up with a then-unknown Dallas jingle vocalist named Janie Fricke for a series of duets. They reached the top of the charts twice with “Thinkin’ of a Rendezvous” (1976) and “It Couldn’t Have Been Any Better” (1977). The following year, Duncan nabbed a number-one hit on his own with “She Can Put Her Shoes Under My Bed (Anytime)”.

[RELATED: 3 Country Songs From 1976 That Deserve To Be Remade Today]

Duncan also contributed the song “Acapulco” to the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood’s 1980 movie Any Which Way You Can.

With country music taste shifting in the early 1980s, Johnny Duncan left Columbia Records and took a step back from music, marrying second wife Connie Smith and settling on a farm near his hometown of Dublin, Texas.

Performing throughout the 1990s, he released his final album, The Thing to Do, in 2004.

Featured image by David Redfern/Redferns

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