Sammy Johns – Chevy Van

Sammy Johns released Chevy Van back in 1975 and it peaked at #5 in the Billboard Top 100 and reached #7 in Canada. It is pure AM 70’s pop but it does take me back to that time.

The musicians that back Johns are the famous Wrecking Crew from Los Angeles. The song has been covered by many Country artists and most recently by Eric Church.

Vans were very popular in the 70s…Not family Mini Vans but rolling waterbed and shag carpet teenage machines. They were customized to have everything in them… Some movies were even centered around vans (Vansploitation)…

 

Chevy Van

I gave a girl a ride in my wagon
She rolled in and took control
She was tired and her mind was a-draggin’
I said get some sleep and dream of rock and roll

‘Cause like a picture she was layin’ there
Moonlight dancin’ off her hair
She woke up and took me by the hand
She’s gonna love me in my Chevy van
And that’s all right with me

Her young face was like that of an angel
Her long legs were tanned and brown
Better keep your eyes on the road, son
Better slow this vehicle down

‘Cause like a picture she was layin’ there
Moonlight dancin’ off her hair
She woke up and took me by the hand
She’s gonna love me in my Chevy van
And that’s all right with me

I put her out in a town that was so small
You could throw a rock from end to end
A dirt road Main Street, she walked off in bare feet
It’s a shame I won’t be passin’ through again

‘Cause like a picture she was layin’ there
Moonlight dancin’ off her hair
She woke up and took me by the hand
We made love in my Chevy van
And that’s all right with me

van3.jpg

 

van1.jpg

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

38 thoughts on “Sammy Johns – Chevy Van”

    1. This one was so ingrained in my childhood that I actually knew who sang it. One thing about these one hit wonders…information is hard to come by…Just the chart position….

      I can not believe there was a genre of Van movies.

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      2. It seems to be a pattern these days when I look up these people. You see these 70s images of them and they don’t match.

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      3. The Van craze seems to have died out in the early 80’s I am guessing? The wikipedia page suggested his song helped sell some vans- too bad he didn’t get any of the profits.

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      4. I know… its a perfect advertisement. I never knew about all of the Van movies though. They were not today’s mini-vans by any stretch of the imagination.

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      5. No not at all. I remember working summers during college out at a local state park- cutting grass etc- there was a van that would be parked out there on a regular basis- most of the time it would be bouncing when we drove by. We’d hit the horn. The 70’s were a tacky decade.

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      6. Lol, they were a rolling hotel room… Yes, it was tacky… but it was our tacky decade. I watch old films and the things that were normal then…would just astonish people now.

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      7. It is funny- I graduated high school in 1979- looking at a yearbook is funny- how we dressed. a friend and i were talking about it- and there was this one kid- who seemed like he was from a different time- the way he dressed- the way his hair was cut–we have decided he was the only sane one- he looked in the late 70’s- like everyone from the past couple decades- then he seemed kind of out of it. Maybe he knew something.

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      8. It sounds like he was setting his own style…ahead of his time…
        Maybe it’s me getting old but in the last couple of decades…I don’t see much change in fashion or decorating styles.
        It’s hard to mark decades now.

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      11. I like being able to ‘define’ a decade. The 70’s didn’t seem odd at the time, or the 80’s- I’d say the past 30 years- it all seems the same and I don’t think that is an old guy ‘get off my lawn’ comment.

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      12. I am always afraid of sounding like that. But you are right it is just a fact.I am very much the same way I like to bookmark decades and this one has lasted 30 years.

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      15. here today-gone tomorrow– i was just for the heck of it going to listen to Drake- I got one album of his and listened to it. the others i ordered came in- i brought them home.. took them back the next day- why bother. no reason too.

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      16. I have to give you credit because you do give main stream artists more of a chance that I do.
        I do run across indie bands that I like.

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      17. Sometimes I get the urge to listen to what is popular just to get a feel for the times.. but as time goes on-that urge doesn’t hit me as often as it used to..

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      18. I totally get it… with some of these bands out there… they are really good but cannot cross over to mainstream… it’s like it’s a road block

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      19. Can you pin point the year or an event or whatever- where things started going downhill? Or is it a case of gradual slipping- to one day- here we are!

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  2. Off topic- at the book sale I went to a couple weeks ago- I was unpacking the books this morning and forgot one I had picked up- The Woollcott Reader- Bypaths of The Realms of Gold- published in 1935…

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      2. You know I’m not sure on what kind of writing he did… The quote I remember is…and I’ll paraphrase this… Him saying “Whats so rare as a Woolcott first edition?” then someone said “a Woolcott second edition.”

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      3. It is a pretty thick book. When I saw his last name on it I knew it could only be him- so I grabbed it! It was the 1935 edition and in good shape for a book over 80 years old.

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  4. Very cool tune. Loved it then and now. I had it on a K-tel compilation LP (no doubt in the very edited version that K-tel used to stack 20 songs on one album) , now have it on a ’70s comp CD. I still remember hearing it with him doing a voice over in the instrumental, saying that it was “semi-autobiographical” … they ran an interview with him over top of the song on a year end countdown and I home taped that and so for years, that was the unfortunate version I listened to!

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    1. That was one of the songs of my childhood riding in my sisters Vega that mom made her take me on lol…
      It always stuck with me… K Tel! I forgot about that label. That would be a good blog post… I could not find much info on the song…with one hit wonders sometimes it’s hard to find much on them.

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  5. Sammy John started as a country artist but my guess is this song never played on any country radio stations because of the subject matter . after Chevy Van he became mostly a song writer and wrote hits for country artist. today’s music is plastic and fake. it is soulless.

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