years_active alias birth_place label name background birth_date genre article_title birth_name occupation
c. 1965 -- 1971 johnny c greenwood , south carolina , united states phil-l.a. of soul , kama sutra the fantastic johnny c solo_singer 28 april 1943 soul the fantastic johnny c
 johnny corley singer
the fantastic johnny c

johnny corley -lrb- born april 28 , 1943 -rrb- , credited as the fantastic johnny c , is an american soul singer who had four us hot 100 hits , including the 1967 top ten hit `` boogaloo down broadway '' .
born in greenwood , south carolina , he studied at brewer high school but left to join the armed services before graduating .
he moved to norristown , pennsylvania after his military duties ended , and began work as a heavy equipment operator .
he joined a local gospel vocal group associated with the macedonia baptist church , and while rehearsing was heard by a fellow churchgoer and near neighbor , the record producer and songwriter jesse james .
james persuaded corley to start singing secular music and became his manager .
corley began performing in philadelphia , on bills with sam cooke and joe simon among others , and james wrote the song `` boogaloo down broadway '' for him .
arranged by leon mitchell and recorded in philadelphia , the song used some of the musicians who would later form the band mfsb , including drummer earl young .
corley 's recording was described by friends as `` fantastic '' , prompting james to release the record on local entrepreneur larry cohen 's label , phil-l.a. of soul , credited as the fantastic johnny c .
the record rose to # 5 on the `` billboard '' r&b chart and # 7 on the pop chart in the fall of 1967 .
johnny c followed up the record 's success with three further us chart hits in 1968 - `` got what you need '' -lrb- # 32 r&b , # 56 pop -rrb- ; `` hitch it to the horse '' -lrb- # 25 r&b , # 34 pop -rrb- , which drew on the success of james ' other writing and production success , `` the horse '' by cliff nobles ; and '' -lrb- she 's -rrb- some kind of wonderful '' -lrb- # 87 pop -rrb- , a song previously recorded by soul brothers six and later by grand funk railroad .
the fantastic johnny c released one album , `` boogaloo down broadway '' , which was described by an allmusic reviewer as `` a mini-masterpiece of gritty soul '' and contained a number of popular dance tunes .
he remained on the phil-l.a. of soul label until 1970 before joining kama sutra records .
continuing to work with jesse james and the same studio musicians , he released two further singles , credited simply as johnny c , but failed to find further commercial success .
he then left the music business , only undertaking occasional performances in later years .
