Johnny Mann, who has passed away at the age of 85, was a choral leader and record producer and he was the bandleader for Joey Bishop's late night talk show and he did many other things. Two stand out for me…
One that he was an expert producer of jingles, especially for radio and for disc jockeys. He was the master of them and was responsible for thousands heard on stations all across the U.S. and Canada. If I'd been a d.j., that's how I'd have known I'd made it: When I had a jingle of the Johnny Mann Singers singing my name. Oh, sure. They'd mispronounce it but it would still be an honor.
Also, he fronted a TV show that was on for three seasons, commencing in 1971 called Johnny Mann's Stand Up and Cheer. Here's a YouTube video of a hunk of it that was edited to showcase its choreographer who appeared in a segment. It'll give you a look at Mr. Mann and a good sense of what the show was like.
It was corny at times with a lot of shallow, flag-waving patriotism…but I always found something pleasant about it. The girls were cute and the folks in charge, one of whom was Mr. Mann, supplemented their cast of young, well-scrubbed performers with one old pro. If you look, you'll spot Thurl Ravenscroft, who voiced Tony the Tiger and appeared on hundreds of records and commercials and cartoons and Disneyland rides. They usually referred to him on the show as "Pappy" but here, he's Thurl. Every so often, they gave him a great solo.
A few years later when I was writing variety shows for Sid 'n' Marty Krofft, we hired a couple of dancers who were in the cast of Stand Up and Cheer. Since most of the ladies on that program looked alike, I'm not sure if any of them are in this clip. One of them told me that Johnny Mann was great to work with if you didn't mind really long hours and really small checks. That was said with affection because she knew that it was all done in service of doing the best possible show and she liked Johnny a lot.
She said, "It was a kind of music I wouldn't have chosen to listen to for myself but he did it very, very well." In keeping with my belief that not every bit of music has to appeal to everyone, I'd count that as a compliment…