Twin/Tone Records

Jonathan Richman

Hello everyone. I was born in Boston in May 1951. I grew up in the suburbs in Massachusetts.

When I was eleven I had a crush on Debbie Salvin. This was 1962. She and Janet Woish listened to WMEX - the teenage station of that time. Well, when I came over to Janet's to pester Debbie, I'd hear "Johnny Angel," "Torture," "Summertime Lover" and songs by Connie Stevens and Tommy Sands. So pretty soon I was there with the transistor radio hearing "The Locomotion," "The Watusi," "he's A Rebel" and everything else. That music is in my heart now as it always will be. 

I heard live bands in junior high but didn't start singing or playing till I was 15 and heard the Velvet Underground, out of New York City. They made an atmosphere and I knew then that I could make one too!

I started singing in public in Boston in 1968. I knew I couldn't sing or play like the other guys did but I didn't want to. I figured I had feeling and that was enough. I knew I was honest.

I don't know what I'm going to do before I do it on stage. I don't use a 'set list'. I don't know if I'll smile, I might be sad that night. Lots of times I think I'm hilarious. But I don't do 'parody' or 'satire' or 'tounge-in-cheek' stuff. I read these words about myself occasionally.

I want to sing all over the world and have my records be in the 'International Section' of your record store, not far from Charles Aznavour and Maurice Chevalier, and guys like that.

- bio from August 1983