Johnny Mercer, Our Honored Scot
Singer—Songwriter—Savannahian—Scotsman
As one looks out over the Moon River flowing behind the Highland Dancing venue, it is easy to see why Johnny Mercer would memorialize it in a song. Of course, back in his Savannah days, this waterway was known as the Back River. In 1962, the Chatham County Commission chose to memorialize Johnny Mercer and his Academy Award- winning song by changing the name of the Back River to the Moon River.
Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah on November 18, 1909. Music had always been a part of his life. Most biographies tell us that as a young boy and as a teen Johnny would frequent the record stores and music establishments on the west side of Savannah—places where he could hear jazz and African-American beats. But Johnny was learning even before that as he listened to Scottish songs sung by his father and grandfathers. Among other Scots, Johnny’s ancestry included the Revolutionary War hero General Hugh Mercer who been a physician in Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire and had attended the wounded at the battle of Culloden, and John Row, the Reformer.
Johnny wrote his first song, “Sister Susie Struts Her Stuff” while a student at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia. He was slated to follow family tradition and continue his education at Princeton. However, the family business failed and Johnny came home to Savannah.
After working at his father’s insurance business for awhile, Johnny and his cousin Walter stowed away to New York City on a boat. Johnny wanted to become an actor, but he found more success as a singer and eventually as a song writer.
Hollywood beckoned in the 1930s and Johnny, paired with composers such as Harry Warren, Harold Arlen, and Richard Whiting, had found his niche. He also found fame and fortune.
Throughout his career, Johnny wrote over 1,000 songs, most as lyricist; but for several he wrote both the words and music. He received Academy Award nominations for nineteen of these songs and four were winners: “The Days of Wine and Roses,” “Moon River,” “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,” and “The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa-Fe”. But dozens of others were hits: "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive," “Autumn Leaves,” “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,” “Lazy Bones,” “Laura,” “Hooray for Hollywood,” “Too Marvelous for Words,” “Midnight Sun,” “When the World Was Young,” “I’m Old Fashioned,” “Satin Doll”…and the list goes on.
Johnny never forgot his Scottish heritage and he never forgot Savannah, returning home often to visit family and friends. Johnny died June 25, 1976, at the age of sixty-six. But Savannah will never forget her “huckleberry friend." And so, today, Johnny Mercer is the Honored Scot of these Savannah Scottish Games.