Johnny Maddox
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Johnny Maddox (born August 4, 1927 in Gallatin, Tennessee) is a ragtime pianist and collector of ragtime memorabilia.
His interest in the era of ragtime and blues was fueled by his Aunt Zula Cothron. She played ragtime piano at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, and taught Johnny to play. Johnny played his first public concert when he was only five. He began his professional career when he was 12 years old.
In 1950 Maddox worked with his friend, Randy Wood, at Randy’s Record Shop in Gallatin when Randy launched Dot Records. Maddox became the first artist to record for Dot Records, and his instant first success helped build the label into one of the most successful labels in the 50’s. His very first single "Crazy Bone Rag" with "St. Louis Tickle” on the flip side sold over 22,000 copies in five weeks. He continued to record for Dot through its acquisition by MCA into the 1970’s. During his career with Dot and MCA, Johnny recorded 50 albums 87 singles. From these he racked up nine gold record with total record sales of over 11,000,000.
Upon hearing him play in 1952, W.C. Handy is reported to have called Maddox "the white boy with the colored fingers."
In 1954, Maddox was voted America's Number One Jukebox Artists by the Music Operators Association.
In 1955 Maddox recorded "the Crazy Otto Medley," made up of pieces written by German comic performer Fritz Schulz-Reichel under the persona Otto der Schrage. It spent 14 weeks at #1 and became the first million-selling ragtime record, eventually selling more than two million copies. Crazy Otto soon became Maddox's nichname as well as Schulz-Reichel's. In fact, the reference to Crazy Otto in the Grateful Dead song "Ramble on Rose" is a reference to Maddox.
Maddox has also been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Maddox still performs annual concerts in Durango, Colorado.
An avid collector of ragtime memorabilia, he has amassed a collection of over 30,000 records, wax cylinders, and piano rolls, as well as a sheet music collection of over 200,000 pieces, some 3,000 of which he claims to have committed to memory.
Crazy Otto Music Purveyors of Ragtime & Early American Music. Featuring the recordings of Johnny Maddox.
Johnny Maddox at All About Jazz
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