I was reading a magazine 
And thinking of a rock and roll song 
The year was nineteen fiftyfour 
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 alI 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 sixtyfour 
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