Mellencamp, John

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Mellencamp, John

Mellencamp, John, mainstream pop-rocker who was most successful for a decade from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s; b. Seymour, Ind., Oct. 7, 1951. The second of five kids, John Mellencamp was born with a potentially crippling disease and spent much of his first year in the hospital, but recovered fully. The son of a Miss Indiana runner-up and an electric company worker who rose through the ranks to company vice president, Mellencamp was playing in bands by the time he was 10. In his early teens he started playing frat parties and the like. After graduating college, Mellencamp—already married with a daughter—took a job with the phone company. He promptly lost this job when he accidentally disconnected the service for a small Ind. town.

With his severance pay, Mellencamp went to N.Y. to shop his demos and was signed by David Bowie’s manager, Tony DeFries. He got a generous contract with MCA and released an album of covers called Chestnut Street Incident. When the album came out, he was startled and upset to learn that DeFries had changed his name, losing his 10-letter appellation in favor of the zingier John Cougar. The album went nowhere and MCA dropped him. He recorded another album as part of his contract with DeFries, who held on to The Kid Inside until Mellencamp started to make hits.

He cut A Biography, which came out only in England. The John Cougar album that he released via Riva Records—a company run by Rod Stewart’s manager—included several songs from the English release including a tune called “I Need a Lover” A slice of hard bluesy rock with an extended guitar introduction and Mellencamp’s sandy voice, the tune attracted some attention at rock radio. It also became an album-rock hit for Pat Benatar. As he worked on his fourth album with producer Steve Cropper in Los Angeles, he learned that “I Need a Lover” had topped the charts in Australia. The song eventually crossed over into pop, hitting #28 in the U.S.

Building on that momentum, the Cropper-produced Nothing Matters and What If It Did spawned two album-rock-to-pop crossovers,“This Time” (#27) and “Ain’t Even Done with the Night” (#17). The album reached #37 and went gold, solidifying Cougar as one of the Middle American rockers to be reckoned with. Reviews of his records and concerts were rife with comparisons to Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and others.

In 1982, Cougar broke through in a big way with the album American Fool. His craggy, photogenic looks played well on MTV, and building on the popularity of his previous two records, the first single went gold, “Hurts So Good” spent four weeks at #2, rebuffed from the top by the McCartney/Wonder duet “Ebony and Ivory.” His next single, “Jack and Diane,” passed it on the way up the charts, as his album hit #1, making him the first artist since John Lennon to have two Top Ten hits and a chart-topping album simultaneously, a situation that lasted for a month. The album stayed at #1 for nine weeks and “Jack and Diane” topped the singles chart for four, going gold. The last single from the album, “Hand to Hold On To” hit #19. All in all, the album sold over 4 million copies. That year, he earned a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, for “Hurts So Good.”

With this success, Mellencamp was able to relegate “Cougar” to a middle name and start recording with his own last name finally. Thus, his next album Uh-huh was by John Cougar Mellencamp. He recorded the album in a bit over two weeks, and it was infused with the energy that some artists lose after a big pop hit. “Crumblin’ Down,” recalling his Rolling Stones roots stronger than anything he had previously done, topped out at #9. The follow-up, “Pink Houses,” notched to #8. While not his most successful song chartwise at #15, “Authority Song” became something of an anthem, a testament to the youth that got thrown off the football team in high school for smoking. The album hit #9 and went triple platinum.

Despite (or maybe because of) his success, Mellencamp chose to stay close to his Ind. roots, living most of the year (when he was home) in Bloomington. While his family was not involved in agriculture, many of his neighbors farmed for a living. Mellencamp became aware of the vast number of farms going under, and joined with other concerned artists like Willie Nelson and Neil Young to create Farm Aid in 1985. His next album reflected this as well. Scarecrow celebrated the ups and downs of the area. The title track, which hit #21 on the charts, laments the fall of the family farm. The album’s first single, “Lonely Ol’ Night” celebrated the simple joy of two lonely people coming together and no longer feeling lonely. That single rose to #6, as did the follow-up celebration of the area, “Small Town.” The album also paid tribute to the music itself with the anthemic, #2 single “R.O.C.K. in the USA.” Even the fifth single, “Rumbleseat,” hit #28. The album sold quadruple platinum, spending three weeks at #2.

After Scarecrow, Mellencamp urged his band to pick up rootsy instruments to expand its musical horizons. His longtime friend, guitarist Larry Crane, sweated over the lap-steel guitar. Drummer Kenny Aronoff took lessons on the hammered dulcimer. Guitarist Mike Wan-chic mastered the dobro. Fiddler Lisa Germano joined the band. The next album, The Lonesome Jubilee, used these instruments, along with banjos and accordions, to make an album that many described as having an Appalachian feel, though Mellencamp said he was shooting for a more gypsy rock sound. The hook of the initial single, “Paper in Fire,” squealed with fiddle and squeezebox, a sound totally unlike anything else on pop radio, but went to #9 anyway. The somewhat more conventional “Cherry Bomb” hit #8. The almost whimsically lyrical “Check It Out” hit #14. The album sold a respectable 3 million copies.

In 1989, after 15 years of relentless recording and touring, Mellencamp realized that he had a daughter from his first marriage who was going to college that year. He had two other daughters who were virtually strangers. So, after the release of his next album, Big Daddy, Mellencamp took a break. He didn’t tour, didn’t do press. He spent time with his family and got heavily into painting. He made a film of a screenplay he had written with Larry McMurtry called Falling from Grace. He got active in the Special Olympics and Nordoff-Robbins music therapy, realizing that he could have been there had his early surgery not been successful. The album spawned the #15 single, “Pop Singer,” and went platinum, rising to #7.

By 1992, though, he was ready for the grind again. He released his first album to eschew the “Cougar” altogether, Whenever We Wanted, and set out on a seven-month world tour. The album generated the #14 single “Get a Leg Up” and the #36 “Again Tonight.” Despite the heavy touring, the album peaked at #17 and went platinum. The following year, his album Human Wheels got excellent reviews, but after debuting at #7 slipped rapidly down the chart, still managing to sell platinum without benefit of a hit single. For Dance Naked, Mellencamp recorded a duet with Me’Shell Ndeg’eOcello on Van Morrison’s “Wild Night” that became a surprise hit, topping the adultcontemporary charts for eight weeks and rising to #3 on the pop charts. He hit the road again, but the tour was cut short when Mellencamp had a heart attack. He went home to Bloomington to recover. The album went to #13, and sold platinum.

Anxious to try something new again, he brought in dance producer Junior Vasquez to work with him on his next album. That record, Mr. Happy Go Lucky, featured samples and tape loops and the sort of studio wizardry Mellencamp had studiously avoided for the previous two decades. It generated a minor hit in “Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First),” and went platinum. Mellencamp wanted out of his contract with PolyGram, and agreed to give them two records. The first was a greatest hits package, The Best That I Could Do: 1978–1988. The album became his 10th platinum record in a row.

He moved over to Columbia and released John Mellencamp. The album featured guest performances by Izzy Stadlin from Guns ’N’ Roses and Stan Lynch from the Heartbreakers. The single “I’m Not Running Anymore” hit #22 on the adultcontemporary chart. The album rose to #41 but only went gold. Even if the album broke his string of platinum records, however, he still was in demand on the road. His tour was the #9 moneymaker of 1999, ahead of KISS.

The second record in the completion of his Mercury deal came out shortly after. Rough Harvest featured acoustic versions of Mellencamp’s hits and favorite tunes, played as if the band performed them on the front porch. It barely broke the Top 100, peaking at #99. He also put out a book of his paintings in 1999.

Discography

Chestnut Street Incident (1976); The Kid Inside (1977); A Biography (1978); Johnny Cougar (1979); John Cougar (1979); Night Dancin’ (1980); Nothiri Matters & What If It Did (1980); American Fool (1982); Uh- Huh (1983); Scarecrow (1985); The Lonesome Jubilee (1987); Big Daddy (1989); Whenever We Wanted (1991); Human Wheels (1993); Dance Naked (1994); Mr. Happy Go Lucky (1996); John Mellencamp (1998); Dance Naked (Bonus CD; 1999).