Label EXECS Told Him 80s Song Would RUIN His Career…Became His BIGGEST HIT! | Professor Of Rock

John Mellencamp was hellbent on making his record label eat their words… His label was focused on grooming him to be the next Neil Diamond, they said his album which included the 80s classic Jack and Diane and Hurts So Good was complete garbage. Back then John Mellencamp started out as Johnny Cougar, then it was John Cougar and then John Cougar Mellencamp, by the time he got his first #1 hit he had changed his name 3 times…but the 80s ditty Jack and Diane gave him what he’d always wanted…His real identity. But it was a fight to even get the label to release American Fool. That’s when he told them to shove it. He’d take it somewhere else. Well, they did release it and it made him the king of 80s heartland rock. the story of his only #1 hit Jack and Diane is NEXT on the Professor of Rock. Thank you to this Episodes Sponsor, Zenni
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http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan Help out the Channel by purchasing your albums through our links! As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you, thank you for your support. Click here for Premium Content: https://bit.ly/SignUpForPremiumContent https://bit.ly/Facebook_Professor_of_Rock https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock #classicrock #vinylstory #80smusic Hey music junkies, Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time. If you used to get up at crack of dawn to catch Saturday Morning Cartoons while eating sugary cereal, you’ll dig this channel of deep nostalgia… Make sure to subscribe below right now. I know you’ll dig it here. We also have a patreon you’ll want to check out. There you’ll find an additional catalog of exclusive content and you can even become an honorary producer to help us curate this music history. So it’s time for another edition of our series The New Standards. This show takes an in-depth look into songs that transcend genre, decade, and fads – songs that are monumental touchstones in our culture and society. today we’re giving you the story behind the 1982 smash Jack & Diane from John Mellencamp’s breakthrough, multi-platinum-selling album American Fool. Of course, John Mellencamp started out professionally as Johnny Cougar after he signed with MainMan in 1976. It was a stage name given to him by his manager, but he really hated it. Yet that’s how his name would appear on his first three albums… 1976’s ‘Chestnut Street Incident’, the six-year delayed ‘The Kid Inside’ released in 1983, and 1978’s sort of self-titled ‘John Cougar’. He would headline as John Cougar up until 1983’s Uh-huh when he made the switch to John Cougar Mellencamp. It wouldn’t be until 1991’s ‘Whenever We Wanted’ that John would finally drop the “Cougar” and go by his preferred moniker, his own name John Mellencamp. Today’s album American Fool would prove to be a key moment in forging John’s identity. Its massive success gave him the clout to use his real last name for the first, but even more importantly, focus in on creating the style of music he cared about. Said John, “The image that was given to me by the record company was so far off base of who I was and what I wanted to do… I did not want to be Johnny Cougar, I did not want to sing love songs, I did not want to be the next Neil Diamond, which is what they wanted.” That “they” was John’s next label after MainMan… Riva Records, distributed by PolyGram in the US. And John and PolyGram that John would butt heads big time for the foreseeable future. Prior to American fool, John had already broken into the US top 30 with I Need a Lover, This Time, and ‘Ain’t Even Done with the Night.’ But the making of American Fool was a fight for the ages.