I was reading a magazine

And thinking of a rock and roll song

The year was nineteen fifty four

And I hadn't been playing that long When a man came on the radio

And this is what he said

He said "I hate to break it to his fans"

But Johnny Ace is dead, yeah, yeah, yeah Well, I really wasn't, such a Johnny Ace fan

But I felt bad all the same

So I sent away for his photograph

And I waited till it came It came all the way from Texas

With a sad and simple face

And they signed it on the bottom

From the late great Johnny Ace, yeah, yeah, yeah It was the year of the Beatles

It was the year of the Stones

It was nineteen sixty four, I was living in London

With the girl from the summer before It was the year of the Beatles

It was the year of the Stones, a year after J.F.K

We were staying up all night and giving the days away

And the music was flowing amazing and blowing my way On a cold December evening

I was walking through the Christmas tide

When a stranger came up and asked me

If I'd heard John Lennon had died And the two of us went to this bar

And we stayed to close the place

And every song we played

Was for the late great Johnny Ace, yeah, yeah, yeah