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Johnny Be Good

By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 25, 2008

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TAMPA - It's Thursday night at the American Legion hall and Johnny Charro takes the stage.

"Old Man Rhythm is in my shoes," he sings. "No use sittin' here cryin' the blues."

Charro, bathed in a blue light and backed by a three-piece band, covers Frankie Ford's classic "Sea Cruise."

"So be my guest, you got nothing to lose," he croons.

In the cavernous ballroom at American Legion Seminole Post 111 on North Florida Avenue, a mirrored disco ball dangles from the ceiling.

"Oo-ee, oo-ee baby, oo-ee, oo-ee baby," Charro wails.

Gray-haired men and women begin rocking, swaying and twisting the night away.

"Oo-ee, oo-ee baby. Won't you let me take you on a sea cruise?"

Before the show is over, more than 200 dancers will pack in to see "The Legend. Tampa's Own - Johnny Charro."

At age 67, after more than 40 years of performing rock 'n' roll, Charro is the longest-running lounge act in the Tampa area.

"I've been through a lot of ups and downs but I'm still standing," he says. "And I still love it. I give of myself and I get it back. When people are smiling and dancing and having a good time, then I feel good."

Born as Johnny Noda in Ybor City on New Year's Eve 1940, he changed his name to Charro in the late 1960s upon the suggestion of a former agent who might have been inspired by the Elvis Presley movie "Charro!"

"I had started singing in high school at dances," he recalls. "Sometimes I would show up at a wedding and sing."

He remembers going to a teen dance at Sacred Heart Academy where a DJ was playing. He got up on stage and sang a couple of Elvis songs.

"The girls loved it but the guys started making fun of me and throwing pennies at me," he says. "I was hurt and embarrassed. I ran outside and started crying. All the girls gathered around and cuddled me. They liked the way I sang and it was because of the women that I kept doing it."

In 1967, he started playing small clubs in Polk County. "They were dives really," he says. He soon found bookings in Tampa and St. Petersburg.

By the mid-1970s, Charro was a headliner at resorts along the Gulf beaches as well as Ramada Inns and Holiday Inns in the Tampa area.

With a shaggy mane and open-front jumpsuits that revealed his hairy chest, Charro was Tampa's version of Elvis and Tom Jones. For a while he was billed as "Johnny Charro: The Elvis Jones Show."

"I did a lot of Elvis but I didn't want to be an impersonator, so I expanded and started doing a little bit of everything," he says. "Whatever people wanted."

The Platters, The Drifters, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Ben E. King, Neil Diamond - he covers them all and then some. He even does The Tractors' "Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train."

Two years ago, he recorded an original song, "Viva Ybor," co-written with fellow Ybor native John Centinaro. The ballad is now part of his act.

"His voice is as wonderful as ever and when he was young he was sexy like Elvis," says Dottie Morgan, who has been a fan since 1977 when she and her husband, Jesse, first saw Charro at a Ramada Inn on Busch Boulevard.

"Off and on we have followed him all these years," says Jesse Morgan. "Basically, it's because he plays our kind of music and it's getting hard to find that anymore." The Morgans say about half the people who come to see Charro have followed him since the 1970s.

Pat Sanders, Charro's manager and best friend for more than 30 years, says Charro inspires loyalty. "People love him," she says. "When he was young the girls were crazy for him and some may still be. He has a loyal following and he remembers people's favorite songs."

"If you like to dance to rock 'n' roll, you come to see Johnny," says Diane McCaffrey, another longtime fan. She drives from St. Petersburg for Charro's Thursday night shows.

American Legion Post Commander Paul Santana says Charro draws a lot of couples who met on the dance floor as teens. Many fell in love while he was singing, like he and his wife did while Charro sang the ballad "One in a Million You."

On Friday and Saturday nights, Charro fans flock to the Tampa Bay Sports Grille on Hillsborough Avenue.

"I used to play two shows a night, six nights a week, but I was younger then," says Charro.

Along the way, he got married and divorced. He has six grandchildren. He gave up the jumpsuits and wide belts long ago for print shirts and slacks.

While Charro toured throughout the South during his career, he remained mostly a Tampa area icon. He says he came close to being "discovered" a few times but never got the break he needed.

"That's all right, now," Charro says of the missed opportunities. "This is what was meant to be. I am happy to be still performing in my hometown."

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.