Johnny Dee was a stage name for John Loudermilk. He was born in Durham, North Carolina on March 31, 1934. He learned to play the guitar when he was 8 years old, and two years later, he had his own weekly radio show on WTIK 1310 AM in Durham. It was called the Little Johnny Dee show, and was aired on Saturdays. His first band in High School was called the Pine Toppers, but he continued to play music in one form or another after they disbanded. Following High School, he worked at a local TV station playing bass fiddle, and began to dabble in song writing. The first composition he created was called A Rose And A Baby Ruth, which soon became a huge hit for George Hamilton IV, originally on the Colonial label. Shortly thereafter, he wrote "Sittin In The Balcony." Johnny Dee recorded it for the Colonial label, and it was a top 40 record on the Billboard pop charts. It was also a top 20 disc for Eddie Cochran, which meant there was a real battle for record sales. Had there been just one version, it would have easily been in the top five or ten. He continued to record for Colonial, but more importantly, he continued to write. His other recordings on Colonial did not fair as well as his first, but he penned some great songs for other artists of the day. Songs like Tobacco Road, Norman, Bad News, Waterloo, and many many others. He knew what to write, how to write it, and who to give it to. Writing the song, cutting the demo and then finding the artist was a tough road back in the 1950's. It's almost impossible today. Join me on a visual journey of Johnny Dee's record label shots from the Colonial label in 1957, and songs from his first chapter in the music business.