We know him today as John Mellencamp, the iconic American singer/songwriter plugged into the pulse of people in the Heartland. But when he put out his first album he was known as Johnny Cougar. His third album was called John Cougar, and with Uh Huh in 1983 he changed his named to the longer John Cougar Mellencamp. By 1990, he had dropped the Cougar part of his name altogether.
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His path to success was also unusual. Mellencamp first scored a Top 5 hit in Australia in 1978 with his debut single “I Need a Lover,” a song that would not get released here until his third album in 1979 and go Top 40. Pat Benatar would cover the track for her debut album in that same year, streamlining it by removing its extended intro.
But it was Mellencamp’s fourth album Nothin’ Matters and What If It Did in 1980 that set him up for greater success. Lead single “This Time” would crack the US Top 30, but “Ain’t Even Done with the Night,” a gentle anthem about romantic friction, made it to No. 17 on the Hot 100 singles chart.
A Simple Tale
In “Ain’t Even Done with the Night,” John Cougar portrays a young man out on a date with a young lady who’s enamored with him. He seems insecure and unsure. Is he ready for something serious or does he just want to have fun for now? And how do you get things going anyway?
Well, I don’t know no good come-ons
And I don’t know no cool lines
I feel the heat of your frustration
I know it’s burnin’ you up deep down inside
You say that I’m the boy who can make it all come true
Well, I’m tellin’ ya that I don’t know if I know what to do
It was a simple but relatable tale of potential young love and confusion.
The video had a simple setup. Cougar does his best James Brown impression, falling to his knees as he cradled the mic, even though the song doesn’t warrant that kind of intensity. His band dresses as a stylish doo-wop group, specifically invoking the Famous Flames, who sang with Brown for many years. As Cougar becomes more impassioned in his performance, they try to drag him from the mic. During the sax solo, his pianist mouthes the notes as no one is shown playing an instrument. That was an interesting choice.
Doubtful of His Own Hit
In 1983, Cougar gave an interview to Record Magazine about the quality of his fourth album, which was produced by Steve Cropper. It turns out he wasn’t a fan.
“The singles were stupid little pop songs,” he declared. “I take no credit for that record. It wasn’t like the title was made up—it wasn’t supposed to be punky or cocky like some people thought. Toward the end, I didn’t even go to the studio. Me and the guys in the band thought we were finished, anyway. It was the most expensive record I ever made. It cost $280,000, Do you believe that? The worst thing was that I could have gone on making records like that for hundreds of years. Hell, as long as you sell a few records and the record company isn’t putting a lot of money into promotion, you’re making money for ‘em and that’s all they care about. PolyGram loved Nothin’ Matters. They thought I was going to turn into the next Neil Diamond.”
Set Up for Success
Thankfully for us, he grew into becoming John Mellencamp.
As for “Ain’t Even Done with the Night,” the video has a decent 4.3 million YouTube views and 37 million Spotify listens, ranking in his Top 10 songs on that latter streamer. That’s not bad for a single he dismissed at the time.
Although Nothin’ Matters & What If It Did took 11 years to go Platinum (it reached a respectable No. 37 on the Top 200 albums chart), it still set things up for his pivotal fifth album, American Fool, done under the name John Cougar Mellencamp. Buoyed by the No. 2 single “Hurt so Good” and his only No. 1 hit, “Jack and Diane,” that release would eventually sell 5 million copies domestically. In fact, all of his ’80s albums after that, with the exception of Big Daddy, would go multi-Platinum.
Modest beginnings often lead to big things. And at age 72, he ain’t even done with his career.
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Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
