There’s a remarkable cumulation of rock/pop songs that combine, in their title, the first name John (or its diminutive Johnny) with the middle initial B. The best-known example is probably “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry; other examples are “Johnny B.” by The Hooters and “Sloop John B.” by The Beach Boys.
Is there a connection between these songs, in the sense that some of them were intentionally made as homages to another? Is it a coincidence? Or is the combination of John as a first name with B. as a middle initial simply particularly euphonic, and songwriters like to take advantage of that?
I’ve noticed that but assumed that most of these were simply instances of a general idiomatic usage. For example, someone who’s just shown up might be referred to as a “Johnny-come-lately.” Or in old movies, you might hear gangsters refer to law enforcement as “Johnny Law.”
I did a bit of googling-- ‘“johnny b” name in popular music’ mostly brings up articles about the specific song “Johnny B. Goode”, but I did find this Slate article: " Why Is Pop Music Obsessed With Names That Start With J?". It doesn’t come to much of a conclusion, though. A key paragraph from the article:
I shared these figures with Timothy Taylor, a professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA. He posited that some of the spike could come from many of the J names (e.g. Jack) being especially easy to rhyme. He also suggested that some “Johnny” songs might have “Johnny” in their title in reference to other “Johnny” songs, such as “Johnny B. Goode.” But ultimately Taylor concluded, “I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all explanation.”
A lot of songs have ‘John’ or ‘Johnny’ in the name. My guess is that since it’s a very common, I think the most common, name in the English language, and therefore a large amount of songs use the name “John” or “Johnny”, of all those 'John /Johnny" songs, a small subset just happen to have the initial ‘B’ as well. Maybe there’s a factor of something like “Johnny B” rolls off the tongue better than just 'Johnny" or “Johnny plus other initials” do.
The term John Q. Public was the name of a character created by Vaughn Shoemaker, an editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Daily News, in 1922. Jim Lange, the editorial cartoonist for The Oklahoman for 58 years, was closely identified with a version of the John Q. Public character, whom he sometimes also called “Mr. Voter”. Lange’s version of the character was described as “bespectacled, mustachioed, fedora-wearing”.
Shoemaker’s version supposedly represented the “beleaguered American taxpayer.” Some speculate that it was derived from John Quincy Adams. The “Q” gives it both euphony and rarity.
But the John is probably the same generic name as John Doe and the English John Bull. It was the most common men’s name for hundreds of years and logically extended to everyman status.
