Big Bad John

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"Big Bad John" is a country song originally performed by Jimmy Dean (who would later become a sausage entrepreneur) and composed by Dean and Roy Acuff. Released in September 1961, by the beginning of November it went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Dean the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording.

The song tells the story of a mysterious and quiet miner who earned the nickname Big John because of his height, weight and muscular physique ("He stood six foot six and weighed two forty-five"). He supposedly came from New Orleans, where he killed a man over a Cajun woman. One day, a timber cracked at the mine where John worked and the situation looked hopeless before John "grabbed a saggin' timber, gave out with a groan / and like a giant oak tree just stood there alone", then "gave a mighty shove", opening a passage and allowing the other miners to scramble out of the mine. John, however, didn't make it outside, meeting his demise in the depths of the mine. The mine itself was never reopened, but a marble stand was placed in front of it, with the words "At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man - Big John" written on it.

[edit] Miscellanea

The refrain was also used to end the PT-109 (song), referring to John F. Kennedy.
There are varying accounts as to who was the inspiration for the character of Big John. Most tell of an actor or football player Dean knew who reminded him of a football player named John Mentoe, who was around 6'5".
Country singer Floyd Cramer (known for composing in 1960 the instrumental piece to 1972's "Last Date" by Conway Twitty), who was hired to play the piano on the song, came up with the idea to use a hammer and a piece of steel instead. This became a distinctive characteristic of the recording.
"Big Bad John" was at number one on the pop chart for three weeks, on the country chart for two, and on the adult contemporary music chart for ten in the U.S. It was also a hit in the United Kingdom.
Dean wrote the song on a flight from New York to Nashville because he realized he needed a fourth song for his recording session.
The song was the B-side of "I Won't Go Huntin' with You Jake", but ended up becoming much more popular than the latter.
Columbia Records was considering dropping Dean before the release of this million-selling single, as he hadn't had a hit in years.
The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance.
Big Bad John was also the title of a 1990 television movie starring Dean.
Dean's LP Big Bad John and Other Fabulous Songs and Tales, where the song first appeared, reached number twenty-three in the pop charts.
There are several known recordings of the song by Dean. Notably, there are two different versions of the inscription on the marble stand in front of the mine. The original, "At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man - Big John", was deemed too controversial, so in the version that was most often heard on the radio, one could hear "At the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man - Big John" instead.
The song was covered by Sammy Davis, Jr., Charlie Daniels, Henson Cargill, Jim Ed Brown, Johnny Cash, and Tex Williams, among others.
Its sequel, "The Cajun Queen", describes the arrival of "Queenie", Big John's Cajun Queen, who rescues John from the mine and marries him. Eventually, they have "one hundred and five grandchildren".

[edit] Parodies

Cleveland DJ Phil McLain had a #21 hit in early 1962 with "Small Sad Sam".

"Big Bruce" by Steve Greenberg (not the same person as the "Lipps, Inc." producer) was one of several gay-themed parodies of the song [1]. Greenberg's version incorporated some of the lyrics from "Big Bad John" though the tune is completely different. The song only charted at #97 in 1969, but is notable as the first song with an unambiguously gay theme to make the Billboard Hot 100.

The bleach Domestos ran an advertising campaign in the late 80s based on the song. A bottle of the bleach moved around a bathroom in the style of a cowboy along with music titled "Big Bad Dom".

Preceded by "Runaround Sue" by Dion	Billboard Hot 100 number one single November 6, 1961	Succeeded by "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes