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A Biography

A BIOGRAPHY

 
A Biography  is John Mellencamp’s second released album, and last credited to his then-stage name “Johnny Cougar”.  Recorded in London, it was released in the U.K. and Australia by Riva Records on March 6, 1978.  Due to poor sales of Mellencamp’s previous album, A Biography did not receive a US release upon its 1978 debut.  Two of its tracks, “Taxi Dancer” and the single “I Need a Lover”, were on his 1979 album John Cougar which was released in the US.  In Australia, however, “I Need a Lover” became a huge hit, with the result that Mellencamp’s career got its first start.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
John Mellencamp is just John Mellencamp these days; but in the beginning, it wasn’t like that at all.  Mellencamp was infuriated to find out that the album, Chestnut Street Incident had been released under the name Johnny Cougar.  He released another album in 1979 under this name, A Biography that included a Top 40 song, “I Need A Lover”; Pat Benatar also included “I Need a Lover” on her debut album, In the Heat of the Night .  Now that he had a little moxie from his record sales, he set about to reinvent himself, well, back to being himself.  I still hear “I Need A Lover” on the radio from time to time, though if the DJ said “Johnny Cougar” or even "John Cougar", almost no one would know who they were talking about anymore. 
 
(July 2012)