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
The Very Thought of You
Johnny Hartman Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I forget to do
Those little ordinary things
That everyone ought to do
I'm living in a kind of daydream
I'm happy as a queen and foolish
Though it may seem to me
That's everything
The mere idea of you
The longing here for you
You'll never know
How slow the moments go
Till I'm near to you
I see your face in every flower
You eyes in stars above
It's just the thought of you
The very thought of you my love
I see your face in every flower
You eyes in stars above
It's just the thought of you
The very thought of you my love
The song "The Very Thought of You" by Johnny Hartman is a romantic ballad that expresses the feeling of being lost in love. The lyrics describe how the mere thought of the beloved one can make the singer forget everything else in the world. The opening lines of the song, "The very thought of you And I forget to do Those little ordinary things That everyone ought to do," suggest that the singer is so immersed in thoughts of the beloved that they lose touch with reality. The singer is living in a daydream, happy and foolish, and feels that the very thought of the beloved is everything.
The chorus of the song expresses the intensity of the singer's longing for the beloved, "The mere idea of you The longing here for you You'll never know How slow the moments go Till I'm near to you." The lyrics convey the idea that time seems to stand still when the singer is away from the beloved, and that they can only find solace in being close to them.
The final lines of the song, "I see your face in every flower You eyes in stars above It's just the thought of you The very thought of you my love," reinforces the idea that the singer is consumed by thoughts of the beloved, and that they find the mere idea of them to be all-consuming.
Overall, "The Very Thought of You" is a song that expresses the power of love to consume our thoughts and emotions, and to make us lose touch with everything else in the world.
Line by Line Meaning
The very thought of you
The mere idea of you brings me immense happiness and joy.
And I forget to do
When I think of you, I become so lost in my thoughts that I forget to do the necessary mundane tasks that I should be doing.
Those little ordinary things
These are the everyday things that everyone should normally do.
That everyone ought to do
These are things that are expected of us and necessary for daily living.
I'm living in a kind of daydream
When I think of you, my mind goes into a state of dreaming which feels both wonderful and not altogether tangible.
I'm happy as a queen and foolish
I feel incredibly happy and giddy when I think of you, even though I recognize that this is somewhat irrational.
Though it may seem to me
Even though others may view my behavior as silly or foolish, I can't help how I feel when I think of you.
That's everything
The mere thought of you is enough to bring me an overwhelming sense of happiness and peace.
The longing here for you
I feel intense longing and desire for you when we are not together.
You'll never know
You may never fully understand how strongly I feel about you.
How slow the moments go
Time seems to drag by and feel like an eternity when I am not with you.
Till I'm near to you
I feel complete and whole only when I am with you.
I see your face in every flower
Your beauty shines through all things, and I am constantly reminded of you wherever I go.
Your eyes in stars above
I see your loving gaze reflected in the twinkling stars above us.
It's just the thought of you
My love for you is so deep that even just the idea of you can light up my entire day.
The very thought of you my love
My love for you is all-encompassing and all-consuming, and I cannot imagine my life without you.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CARLIN AMERICA INC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Ray Noble
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind