Ranking the Rock Writers 1955-1991: Writer Team #32,
Individual Writer #39:  John D. LOUDERMILK

It is hard to write a short blurb about John D. Loudermilk.  Listening to his music, and knowing he grew up in North Carolina and eventually worked out of Nashville, his country roots are clear.  But there is a sense of humor that underlies many of his songs.  Maybe like a much more subtle Ray Stevens.  In his obituary in the Guardian, it was noted that he was something of a prankster, sending up Casey Kasem with a fake story of the origin of his song Indian Reservation.

His first song, A Rose And A Baby Ruth was written in 1956 and became a fair sized hit for George Hamilton IV.  Eddie Cochran had a hit with Sittin’ In The Balcony.  Both songs had contemporary covers that also charted simultaneously.  Things were quiet, however, until Stonewall Jackson recorded Waterloo,  a song Loudermilk co-wrote with Marijohn Wilkin.  Waterloo went to #1.

His strongest run of hits came as a set of three, within a year’s time, with Sue Thompson.  Sad Movies (Make Me Cry) and Norman were #1 hits.  The third was James (Hold The Ladder Steady).  All a little quirky, subtly humorous.  See his own recording of Calling Dr. Casey which charted about the same time.

There is a bit of controversy surrounding his role in the song Abilene.  The first copyright for the song was to Bob Gibson in 1960, noting that Gibson wrote the lyric and adapted the music.  In the book I Come For To Sing, Gibson says that in the beginning there was the opening line, “Abilene, Abilene, prettiest town I ever seen,” to which he added verses with Les Brown, a Chicago writer.  Gibson does not mention Loudermilk.  Abilene became a hit for George Hamilton IV in 1963; a 1963 copyright credits Loudermilk as follows: “ABILENE; arr. John D. Loudermilk. 3 p. [With words] NM: arr. © Acuff-Rose Publications, Inc.; 24May63; EP175940.”  Note there is no mention of additional lyrics or new lyrics as would be customary—only “N(ew) M(aterial): arr”--the arrangement.  For that reason, I have not credited him as a writer.

Further corroborating this position is his modus operandi: Loudermilk charted very few collaborations.  Although Brown, Gibson, Loudermilk and Albert Stanton (who also contributed to The Lion Sleeps Tonight) are credited in BMI,  I added Traditional, and dropped Loudermilk as being arranger only.

By far, the biggest song in the Loudermilk canon is Indian Reservation.  It was first copyrighted as The Pale Faced Indian on April 4, 1960, and listening to a 1960 recording by Loudermilk, the lyric and the melody are quite similar to Indian Reservation as we know it, although it was done in more of an Indian manner, and makes me think of Running Bear. 

A copyright in 1963 changed the song name to just Indian and finally, the copyright for The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian was issued March 2, 1967.  Don Fardon’s version, with substantially the same title entered the charts in August of 1968 and peaked at #18.  The Raiders version went to #1 in 1971 in all three magazines and scored in the top 1% of the songs of the era.

By the ‘70s he had turned his attention to country music, working from Nashville.  He has 449 songs registered in BMI.  Loudermilk himself ranked as the 275^th most efficient writing team, averaging just over 1000 points for his 43 entries; however, largely on the strength of Sue Thompson and the Raiders, he ranked as the 32^nd high scoring writer team and 39^th high scoring individual writer in Ranking the Rock Writers.

See also http://ranking.rocks for more on Ranking the Rock Writers.