I was reading a magazine

And thinking of a rock and roll song


The year was nineteen fifty four


And I hadn't been playing that long




When a man came on the radio


And this is what he said

He said "I hate to break it to his fans"


But Johnny Ace is dead, yeah, yeah, yeah




Well, I really wasn't, such a Johnny Ace fan


But I felt bad all the same


So I sent away for his photograph

And I waited till it came





It came all the way from Texas

With a sad and simple face


And they signed it on the bottom


From the late great Johnny Ace, yeah, yeah, yeah




It was the year of the Beatles


It was the year of the Stones

It was nineteen sixty four, I was living in London


With the girl from the summer before




It was the year of the Beatles


It was the year of the Stones, a year after J.F.K


We were staying up all night and giving the days away

And the music was flowing amazing and blowing my way





On a cold December evening

I was walking through the Christmas tide


When a stranger came up and asked me


If I'd heard John Lennon had died




And the two of us went to this bar


And we stayed to close the place

And every song we played


Was for the late great Johnny Ace, yeah, yeah, yeah