John Lyon (born December 4, 1948), known professionally as Southside Johnny, is a retired American singer-songwriter who fronted the band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.
Southside Johnny has long been considered the Grandfather of "the New Jersey Sound." Jon Bon Jovi has acknowledged Southside Johnny as his "reason for singing." He is a member of the New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2018.
John Lyon was born in Neptune, New Jersey, and grew up in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. He grew up in a home full of music and with his parents' big record collection of blues and jazz; his father played bass in bands. "I grew up on music. We listened to Billie Holiday, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters and Big Joe Turner. My parents loved music, the louder the better. My father played in bands for years, and my mother went into labor with me at some seedy New Jersey club. I guess some things were just meant to be."
In 1967, Lyon graduated from Neptune High School with Garry Tallent and Vini Lopez who would both go on to play with him in the future.
Southside Johnny first achieved prominence in the mid-1970s as the second act to emerge from the Jersey Shore music scene and is considered part of the Jersey Shore sound, following Bruce Springsteen. Southside Johnny's first three albums, I Don't Want to Go Home (1976), This Time It's for Real (1977), and Hearts of Stone (1978), were Stax-influenced R&B, arranged and produced by the co-founder of the band and Springsteen confederate Steven Van Zandt, and largely featured songs written by Van Zandt and/or Springsteen. The Van Zandt-written "I Don't Want To Go Home" became Southside Johnny's signature song, an evocative mixture of horn-based melodic riffs and sentimental lyrics. Other notable songs included "The Fever", "Talk to Me", "This Time It's For Real", "Love on the Wrong Side of Town", and a cover of Springsteen's "Hearts of Stone".
In 1977, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes were featured as a bar band in the movie Between the Lines.
On August 8, 1979, days after going down in a storm at the Knebworth Festival(on the same bill as Led Zeppelin’s homecoming first UK gig in 4 years), Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes performed a homecoming concert in Asbury Park which was the subject of a documentary film directed and produced by Neal Marshad called Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes at the Asbury Park Convention Center. The film was first shown in January 1980 on Warner Cable's QUBE in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1979, the band was dropped by its record company. Now working without Van Zandt, they released The Jukes in 1979 and Love is a Sacrifice in 1980. Neither of these achieved much success. The band's first official live release also came out in 1980, the double live album Reach Up and Touch the Sky.
In 1981, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes appeared on the Canadian sketch comedy television show SCTV, featured as a "wedding band". Johnny and the band played three full songs, including "The Fever", and performed many truncated versions of their other tunes. Johnny acted in one sketch, and the entire band was featured as a plot point in another.
In 1982 Rolling Stone voted the album Hearts of Stone among the top 100 albums of the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1983, Southside Johnny served as a technical advisor on the film Eddie and the Cruisers.
During the 1980s Southside Johnny's recording contracts continued to change almost by album, but he continued to release records: Trash It Up (1983), a Latin freestyle-influenced album written by Billy Rush and produced by Nile Rodgers; In the Heat (1984) an album trying to reach out to "Adult Contemporary" radio; and At Least We Got Shoes (1986) where guitarist and Jersey shore fixture Bobby Bandiera took over songwriting and guitar work from Billy Rush and led the Asbury Jukes back to their original sound. Songwriting credits on At Least We Got Shoes also contain a song co-written by Bandiera and singer Patti Scialfa, who was known as a Jukes collaborator since the 1980 album Love is a Sacrifice and who became a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band in 1984.
In 1985, Southside Johnny contributed the title track to the film Tuff Turf.
In 1986, Southside contributed the track "Let Me at 'Em" to the soundtrack for the film Karate Kid II.
In 1987, Southside Johnny and the Jukes were featured in the film Adventures in Babysitting performing at a college frat party. They performed the songs "Future in Your Eyes" and "Expressway to Your Heart".
In 1988, Southside Johnny released his first solo record Slow Dance containing ballads and love songs like "On the Air", but also "Little Calcutta", a rare political song, describing the life of the homeless in New York City.
In the early 1990s, Johnny lived in Southern California in the beachside city of San Clemente.
In 1990, Southside Johnny contributed the songs "Memories of You" and "Written in the Wind" to the film Captain America. Additionally, he performed the song "Please Come Home for Christmas" for the 1990 film Home Alone.