Johnny Rodriguez
Some Of Mine, Some Of Theirs
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A reliable country hitmaker
for much of the '70s,
Johnny Rodriguez was born in Sabinal, TX, in 1951, growing
up 90 miles from the Mexican border. His older brother Andres, a
big country music fan, bought him a guitar when he was seven,
and he was playing and singing by his teens.
Rodriguez was captain of his high school
football team at 16, but when his father died of
cancer, he spiraled out of control, racking up four arrests in
two years. While
Rodriguez was serving a jail term, Texas Ranger Joaquin
Jackson heard him sing and introduced him to music promoter
Happy Shahan, who booked
Rodriguez to work as a singing stagecoach driver at the
Alamo Village Amusement Park during 1970-1971. There he was
discovered by
Tom T. Hall and
Bobby Bare, who brought him to Nashville to join
Hall's
Storytellers. Not long after,
Rodriguez signed with Mercury, releasing his debut single,
"Pass Me By (If You're Only Passing Through)," in early 1973. It
climbed into the Top Ten and turned out to be the first of 14
consecutive
Rodriguez singles to do so. His next two, "Ridin' My Thumb
to Mexico" and "You Always Come Back (To Hurting Me)," both hit
number one.
1974 brought the Top Five hits "Dance With Me (Just One More
Time)" and "We're Over," plus the number one "That's the Way
Love Goes." The following year was even better, as all three of
his singles -- "I Just Can't Get Her Out of My Mind," "Just Get
Up and Close the Door," and "Love Put a Song in My Heart" -- hit
number one. More Top Five hits followed over 1976-1977 in "I
Couldn't Be Me Without You," "I Wonder If I Ever Said Goodbye,"
and "Desperado," but he and Mercury parted ways in 1979, upon
which point he signed with Epic. "Down the Rio Grande" went Top
Ten that year, but
Rodriguez subsequently endured a serious commercial slump.
He returned to the Top Ten in 1983 with a pair of hits,
"Foolin'" and "How Could I Love Her So Much," which proved to be
the last of his career; his final chart single came with 1988's
Top 20 hit "I Didn't (Every Chance I Had)" on Capitol. He did
record a couple of honky tonk-style records during the '90s,
specifically Run for the Border (Intersound, 1993) and
You Can Say That Again (Hightone, 1996). ~ Steve Huey, All
Music Guide
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Includes 10 Tracks |
Some Of Mine, Some Of Theirs 
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