Happy Goodmans -Johnny Cook - What A Lovely Name

Here from a 1975 audio recording in Little Rock, Arkansas, Johnny Cook takes the lead on the chorus as the Goodmans unleash on stage with "What A Lovely Name." The Goodmans had released an album entitled "The Legendary Goodmans." The four Goodmans are on the album cover art work renderings, but there is no mention anywhere on the album of Johnny Cook. Many radio stations around the country played the song without much thought of who was singing. On "What A Lovely Name," it is unmistakably the voice of Johnny Cook. Vestal had been ill, and the idea was for him to fill in her part seamlessly. He did just that. Some people couldn't tell the difference. To many an untrained ear it just sounded like Vestal, after all, men can't sing those notes anyway . . . that was up until Johnny came along. Most tenors jump into their falsetto to get those clear head tones, but not Johnny - he just sang right up to them - clear as a bell. If you have any kind of ear, know the voice, the lilt and tember of Vestal's voice, you know immediately, on the album version, that it isn't her.
Pretty shrewd of Rusty, who was primarily responsible for recruiting Johnny for the group. For years now, every time I have heard a Gaither video rendition of the song, or the late Howard and Vestal, along with Johnny Minick do the number, my mind goes back to the original recording. Most versions since then have paid unspoken homage to the original.
This "live" performance, with Eddie Crook's impeccable arrangement and piano work, here's the Happy Goodmans in their prime, with Johnny Cook taking the lead "on stage" before a sold out crowd at Little Rock's Robinson auditorium in 1975. NOW THAT'S SINGING!