Born in Louisiana, but raised in Chicago, Hartman began singing and playing the piano by the age of eight. He attended DuSable High School studying music under Walter Dyett before receiving a scholarship to Chicago Musical College. He sang as an Army private during World War II, but his first professional work came in September 1946 when he won a singing contest awarding him a one-week engagement with Earl Hines. Seeing potential in the singer, Hines hired him for the next year. Although Hartman’s first recordings were with Marl Young in February 1947, it was the collaboration with Hines that provided notable exposure. After the Hines orchestra broke up, Dizzy Gillespie invited Hartman to join his big band in 1948 during an eight-week tour in California. Dropped from the band about one year later, Hartman worked for a short time with pianist Erroll Garner before going solo by early 1950.
After recording several singles with different orchestras, Hartman finally released his first solo album, Songs from the Heart, with a quintet for Bethlehem Records in 1955. Releasing two more albums with small labels, neither very successful, Hartman got a career-altering offer in 1963 to record with John Coltrane. The saxophonist likely remembered Hartman from a bill they shared at the Apollo Theater in 1950 and later said, “I just felt something about him, I don’t know what it was. I like his sound, I thought there was something there I had to hear so I looked him up and did that album.” Featuring all ballads, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman is widely considered a classic. This led to recording four more albums with Impulse! and parent label ABC, all produced by Bob Thiele.
With the 1970s being difficult for singers clinging to the pre-rock American songbook, Hartman turned to playing cocktail lounges in New York City and Chicago. Recording again with small labels such as Perception and Musicor, Hartman produced music of mixed quality as he attempted to be viewed as a more versatile vocalist. Referring to his approach to interpreting a song, Hartman said, “Well, to me a lyric is a story, almost like talking, telling somebody a story, try to make it believable.” Returning to the jazz combo format of his earlier albums, Hartman recorded Once in Every Life for Bee Hive, earning him a 1981 Grammy nomination for Best Male Jazz Vocalist. This was quickly followed up by his last album of newly recorded material titled This One’s for Tedi as a tribute to his wife Theodora. His first kid is Jani, Jani Hartman the famous jazz singer, who became famous with the song 'Bad'.
Hartman recorded new tracks for Grenadilla Records on their jazz label – Grapevine. These were dance tracks of Beyond the Sea and Caravan with Caravan also having an extended 6-minute version.
In the early 1980s Hartman gave several performances for jazz festivals, television, and radio before succumbing to lung cancer at the age of sixty. His reputation grew considerably in 1995 when the soundtrack to Clint Eastwood’s Bridges of Madison County (1995) featured seven songs from the then out-of-print Bee Hive album.
Hartman's first biography, The Last Balladeer: The Johnny Hartman Story, by Dr. Gregg Akkerman, was released in June 2012 by Scarecrow Press as part of their "Studies in Jazz" series.
(2) Though he was never the most distinctive vocalist, Johnny Hartman rose above others to become the most commanding, smooth balladeer of the 1950s and '60s, a black crooner closely following Billy Eckstine and building on the form with his notable jazz collaborations, including the 1963 masterpiece John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. Born in Chicago, he began singing early on and performed while in Special Services in the Army. Hartman studied music while at college and made his professional debut in the mid-'40s, performing with Earl Hines and recording his first sides for Regent/Savoy. After Hines' band broke up later in 1947, Hartman moved to the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band and stayed for two years, recording a few additional sides for Mercury as well.
Johnny Hartman's first proper LP came in 1956 with Songs from the Heart, recorded for Bethlehem and featuring a quartet led by trumpeter Howard McGhee. He recorded a second (All of Me) later that year, but then was virtually off-record until 1963, when his duet album John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman appeared on Impulse. A beautiful set of ballad standards, including top-flight renditions of "Lush Life" and "My One and Only Love," the album sparked a flurry of activity for Hartman, including two more albums for Impulse: 1963's I Just Dropped by to Say Hello and the following year's The Voice That Is. During the late '60s and early '70s, he recorded a range of jazz and pop standards albums for ABC, Perception, and Blue Note. Hartman recorded sparingly during the 1970s, but returned with two albums recorded in 1980, one of which (Once in Every Life) earned a Grammy nomination just two years before his death in 1983. ~ John Bush, Rovi
Charade
Johnny Hartman Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We were like children posing
Playing at games, acting out names
Guessing the parts we played
Oh what a hit we made
We came on next to closing
Best on the bill, lovers until
Fate seemed to pull the strings
I turned and you were gone
While from the darkened wings
That music box played on
Sad little serenade
Song of my heart's composing
I hear it still, I always will
Best on the bill
Charade
The lyrics of Charade, as sung by Johnny Hartman, narrates a tale love, deceit and loss. The song begins with the description of a game - a charade or a game where the players try and guess the names of the parts they or the opposing team members are playing. The lyrics suggest that the two individual playing the game were initially playing it just for fun but eventually, their act turned out to be so good that they made it to the top of the bill, becoming the best act until love left the masquerade.
However, the fate of the two individuals in question seemed to have taken a turn for the worse, as the song progresses. It is revealed that during the game, something had tried pulling their strings, probably fate or circumstances. In the end, one of the players turns to find the other gone, leaving him to the song of his heart's composing or a sad little serenade. This song will forever remind him of the lover that he lost, the lover with whom he was once the best on the bill, before their love left the masquerade.
Line by Line Meaning
When we played our charade
When we pretended to be someone else
We were like children posing
We were innocent and naive about what we were doing
Playing at games, acting out names
We were playing characters and pretending to be someone else
Guessing the parts we played
We were trying to figure out who the other person was pretending to be
Oh what a hit we made
We were successful in fooling each other
We came on next to closing
We were near the end of our charade game
Best on the bill, lovers until
We were the best at pretending and we acted like we were in love
Love left the masquerade
Our game ended when we stopped pretending to be in love
Fate seemed to pull the strings
It seemed like we were meant to play this game
I turned and you were gone
One of us decided to stop playing the game
While from the darkened wings
While we were hidden from view
That music box played on
The game continued even though we stopped playing
Sad little serenade
A sad song playing in the background
Song of my heart's composing
A song that represents how I feel
I hear it still, I always will
I can still feel the sadness of the memory
Best on the bill
We were the best at pretending
Charade
Our game of pretending to be someone else
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: WILLIAM STUART ADAMSON, RICHARD JOBSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind