Johnny Ace - Tributes

Tributes

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez performed "Never Let Me Go" on the Rolling Thunder Revue Tour late in 1975.

Elvis Presley covered "Pledging My Love" on his last studio session in 1976. The song appeared on the Moody Blue album in 1977 at the time of his death.

Paul Simon wrote and performed the song "The Late Great Johnny Ace", in which a boy, upon hearing of the death of Ace, orders a photograph of the deceased singer, describing: "It came all the way from Texas / With a sad and simple face / And they signed it on the bottom / From the Late Great Johnny Ace."

David Allan Coe covered "Pledging My Love", introducing the song with his own recollections of hearing the news of Ace's death.

Johnny Ace is also namechecked by Root Boy Slim in "House Band in Hell" as well as by Dash Rip Rock in the song "Johnny Ace".

Ace's song "Pledging My Love" appears in the 1973 Martin Scorsese film Mean Streets and John Carpenter's 1983 movie Christine, based on Stephen King's novel. The song also appears in the Abel Ferrara film Bad Lieutenant. The song also appears in the movie "Back To the Future" It is playing in the background of the scene with Marty and his mother in the yellow car. It is, however not credited.

The Teen Queens song "Eddie My Love" was originally titled "Johnny My Love" and was written in Johnny's memory.

The Swiss singer Polo Hofer and the Schmetterband wrote the song "Johnny Ace" in 1985; it was released on the album Giggerig.

Rock and Roll historian Harry Hepcat notes: "Johnny Ace was a crooner who sounded like Johnny Mathis with soul. ....Soon after the death of Johnny Ace, Varetta Dillard recorded 'Johnny Has Gone' for Savoy Records in early 1955. She incorporated many of Ace's song titles in the lyrics. This was the first of the many teen tragedy records that were to follow in the later 50s and early 1960s."

Dave Alvin's 2011 release, Eleven Eleven, contains a song describing his death, called "Johnny Ace is Dead."