Veteran American pop and country singer Johnny Tillotson has died, aged 86.
Tillotson’s passing was announced by his wife Nancy Tillotson on social media yesterday (April 2). In an additional statement to PEOPLE, Nancy confirmed that his death follows a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
Tillotson was perhaps best known for the 1961 hit ‘Poetry In Motion’, as well as other hits like ‘Talk Back Trembling Lips’ and ‘It Keeps Right on A-Hurtin’, the latter of which was covered by Dean Martin, Bobby Darin and Elvis Presley.
In a lengthy post on Facebook, Nancy wrote: “Someone said, that sometimes right in the middle of an ordinary life you get a fairy tale. The day I met him I got mine. He was funny, generous and kind. A gentleman through and through. He loved and was grateful to his fans, as he once said, they made every dream I ever had come true.”
See the full post below.
It is with a broken heart that I write to let you know that the sweetest, kindest man I ever met Johnny Tillotson , left…
Posted by Nancy Tillotson on Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Johnny Tillotson kicked off his career in music in 1958 and three years later catapulted into the mainstream with the hit song ‘Poetry In Motion’, which peaked at the second spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
Then in 1962, he earned the first of two Grammy nominations with the song ‘It Keeps Right on A-Hurtin’, which landed at the third spot on the Hot 100 and was covered by the likes of other icons including Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, Wanda Jackson and Conway Twitty.
Johnny Tillotson’s second Grammy nomination came from his 1965 song ‘Heartaches by the Number’.
His other hits include ‘Judy, Judy, Judy’, ‘Send Me the Pillow You Dream On’, ‘You and Me’ and ‘You Can Never Stop Me Loving You’.
Tillotson was inducted into America’s Pop Music Hall of Fame in 2014, and just days before his death released the single ‘Everything I Touch Turns To Blue’.
