Johnny Madara born 28 May 1936

Johnny Madara  (born John L. Medora May 28, 1936), also known as John Madara, is an American singer-songwriter.

John Medora was born in Philadelphia as part of a large Italian – American family.  During his teen years, Rock and Roll was beginning to take shape.  When he was 17 years old, inspired by the music he heard on the radio, early rock acts such as Jackie Wilson, The Clovers and the Moonglows, he took singing lessons with vocal coach, Artie Singer. Artie had a song he had written called "Be My Girl." They recorded it, and it made the National charts top 100.  By that time John had changed his name to Johnny Madara.

                             

Following "Be My Girl" John recorded a song written by Dave White and himself called "Do The Bop" with backup singers Dave White, Danny Rapp, Frank Maffi and Joe Teranova, who would later become "Danny and The Juniors."  

Madara & White at the
 Do The Bop session

Capitol Records, who Johnny had a contract with, passed on "Do The Bop," and at the suggestion of Dick Clark, the title and lyrics were changed to "At The Hop."  Danny and The Juniors recorded the song for Artie Singer's label, Singular Records, and later the master was sold to ABC Paramount.  

John recorded several other records, including Heavenly and Vacation Time, hit the charts, but Johnny Madara's singing career would be put on the back burner following the huge success of "At The Hop."  Dave and John's subsequent success as producers and writing partners, with such hits as "The Fly," "You Don't Own Me," and "1-2-3," made it difficult to resurrect John's singing career.

It would be several years later that John would record one final time with a group he formed called The Spokesmen, which featured John, Dave White and Ray Gilmore. “Dawn of Correction", was an answer song to Barry McGuire's hit "Eve of Destruction". The song reached number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. The pair also formed their own publishing company which was later sold to Michael Jackson. In 1967 John and Dave, with Leon Huff, produced “Let the Good Times Roll”/”Feel So Good,” #22 in Billboard, for Bunny Sigler on Parkway Records.

Madara with Gamble & Huff

After parting ways with White over creative differences, his partner was interested in psychedelic rock while he preferred to “stay contemporary” Madara moved to Los Angeles in 1972 and worked as a record producer. He  discovered both Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble (Gamble and Huff), later a successful songwriter and producer attributed to pioneering the style of music known as Philly Soul, and the recording artists Hall and Oates.

Madara spent three years in Las Vegas working with one of the most successful performers of all time, Wayne Newton. He produced two of his albums and further produced and wrote songs for a Christmas television special for Wayne Newton on CBS. In the mid 1970s he moved to Los Angeles, and produced music for movies including Cinderella Liberty and Hey Good Lookin', as well as for television.

                            John Madara's wall of records at his Cambria home

Songs have appeared on some of the biggest grossing soundtrack albums of all time, including American Graffiti and Woodstock ("At The Hop"), Grease ("Rock and Roll is Here to Stay"), Hairspray ("The Fly" and "You Don't Own Me"), Mr. Holland's Opus ("1-2-3"), and Dirty Dancing and The First Wives Club ("You Don't Own Me"). It was the 1996 hit film, The First Wives Club, that not only featured "You Don’t Own Me", but it was used as the theme of the movie. On November 27, 2016, the song was announced to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In October 2017, the Philadelphia Music Alliance honoured Madara and his longtime writing partner David White for their contributions to the so-called “Philadelphia Sound,” along with another Philadelphia songwriting duo, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. All four received markers on the association’s Walk of Fame. (Dave White died in Las Vegas March 16. 2019).

(Edited from thatphillysound.com., The Tribune & Wikipedia)