Johnny Knight / Real name John Mangiagli.
John is originally from the Bronx, New York City. He came to California in 1954. In 1957, at the age of 19, he started out with Johnny Otis (of Willie and the Hand Jive fame). At that time, he recorded his first record, Snake Shake. He wrote and recorded several songs between 1957 and 1968. In 1965, he wrote, arranged and produced a hit record called “The Gamma Goochee”. He used the title of the song as his stage name for that record, by Gamma Goochee himself. The record was later covered by the Kingsmen of “Louie, Louie” fame, Joe Walsh of the Eagles and three other underground groups. His song was re-released on the Colpix Dimension compilation and on Ace records, “Great Googa Mooga” album.
He has performed with Little Richard and has recorded with Elvis Presley’s lead guitar man, James Burton, Glen Campbell and Ray Charles’ background singers, the Raelettes. In his early years, he did concerts with the Beach Boys and the Coasters. He also worked with Tommy Boyce and Bobby hart (hit song writers for the Monkees).
Johnny Knight
Born John Arthur Mangiagli on November 15, 1937, to an Italian family from the Bronx, John grew up listening to all the music he was surrounded by in New York—vocal groups singing doo-wop harmony, Italians playing music with their families, Black groups playing rhythm and blues, and boogie-woogie. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1952, when John was fifteen years old.
It couldn’t have been a better time to move for a music-obsessed teenage kid. Los Angeles was one of the great rock ’n’ roll breeding grounds, where Black groups played raucous R&B concerts to white kids and a huge underground scene was built on a radio empire populated by radio personalities like Hunter Hancock, Art Laboe, Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg, and many others. Teenage John Mangiagli wanted to be a rhythm and blues singer more ....... an source - https://dekedickerson.com/musings/rip-johnny-knight/
