in the U.S.A., Paper in Fire, Check it Out, Cherry Bomb, Pop Singer and Jackie Brown, he developed what became his singular signature sound.Ĭoinciding with that sound was Mellencamp’s lyrical concerns with themes idenitifed by his Steinbeck Award, especially the dignity of the common man. 1 hit Jack & Diane. But with the ‘80s albums that followed ( Uh-Huh, Scarecrow, Lonesome Jubilee, and Big Daddy) and their hits including Crumblin Down, The Authority Song, Small Town, Rain on the Scarecrow, Lonely Ol Night, R.O.C.K. After scoring his first hit, I Need a Lover, in 1979, his fifth album, American Fool, became 1982’s best-selling album on the strength of Hurts So Good and the No. His first album, The Chestnut Street Incident, was released in 1976 under the name Johnny Cougar, his manager thinking his real name might hamper sales. in the U.S.A., they earned him numerous prestigious awards including the Nordoff-Robbins Silver Clef Special Music Industry Humanitarian Award, the Billboard Century Award, the Woody Guthrie Award, the ASCAP Foundation Champion Award, Q Awards’ Classic Songwriter Award, the Americana Lifetime Achievement Award and the John Steinbeck Award (given to those individuals who exemplify the spirit of "Steinbeck's empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of the common man”).īorn Octoin Seymour, Indiana, Mellencamp, who still lives in nearby Bloomington, loved music and was performing in local bars and heading a soul band by the time he was 14. Together with massive Top 40 hits like Hurt So Good and R.O.C.K. After first finding fame as rocker Johnny Cougar, Grammy-winner John Mellencamp gradually reclaimed his real name while staking out his own unique rock sound with self-penned songs like Small Town and Cherry Bomb that embodied the genre of music now known as roots rock, or Americana.
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