Go, Johnny, Go! is a cheesy B-movie exploitation of the popular "fad" rock-n-roll. It features a ludicrous story of an orphan named Johnny who becomes a great rock-n-roll singer, despite the obstacles placed in his way by the adult establishment (he gets kicked off the… More
Go, Johnny, Go! is a cheesy B-movie exploitation of the popular "fad" rock-n-roll. It features a ludicrous story of an orphan named Johnny who becomes a great rock-n-roll singer, despite the obstacles placed in his way by the adult establishment (he gets kicked off the church choir for singing rock-n-roll, he gets fired from his job as an usher at a theater for dancing when they had a singer on the stage in between matinees, I mean really, dancing?). He meets up with a fellow female orphan from his youth who also so happens to be a singer. What they sing barely qualifies as rock-n-roll, it's more the popular Doris Day-type stuff that nobody's parents would disapprove of (Johnny doesn't play a guitar, he plays a jazzy trumpet, and you can't get much less rock-n-roll than that). Seriously, it's like Frankie Avalon and Pat Boone had a lamer kid brother. Anyway, this silly plot isn't why we're here: it's to see the classic rock-n-roll acts from the late fifties, and this doesn't disappoint. Eddie Cochran, Ritchie Valens, Jackie Wilson, and of course the great Chuck Berry (who has a pretty significant acting role in the movie) all lip sync some of their bigger songs. Alan Freed the promoter, has somehow become Alan Freed The Actor, the lone saviour of Rock-N-Roll kids around the world. I feel a little bit sorry for Chuck Berry (who plays himself), he really has to play up how great this Johnny kid is, even though I'm sure it was torture to do so. If Thom Yorke from Radiohead ever made a movie for The Man and had to play up how great Justin Beaver was, I'm sure it would be quite similar to this. Actually, in this day and age, that doesn't seem that unreasonable. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
