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They worked together for about a year, before Johnny left to form his own band,
featuring a three man brass section, with himself on guitar, and by all accounts they
tore up the LA clubs, Johnny playing guitar with his teeth, hanging from the rafters,

and walking amongst the audience with a 30 foot guitar lead. He also played
double-header gigs with Guitar Slim, who was equally adept at ‘tearing up’!

An initial career break occurred when, in 1953, Johnny was introduced to Federal
Records A&R man Ralph Bass, by the influential R&B DJ Hunter Hancock. Federal
was the West Coast subsidiary of King Records. A contract was signed, and singles
issued under the name ‘Young John Watson’, including such tracks as ‘Highway 60’,

‘Gettin’ Drunk’ and a re-recording of ‘Motor
Head Baby’. Backing was supplied by the Amos
Milburn band.

In 1954 Johnny recorded the futuristic
instrumental ‘Space Guitar’. In describing the

making of the record, he said “Fender had just
come out with reverb on the amplifiers, and
everybody was afraid of them, but I thought it
was a great way to sustain notes”. The engineer

apparently said it made him sound like a
spaceman - hence the title! It certainly sounds
very weird, with the reverb set so high it’s

almost vibrating the reverb spring out of the
cabinet! The combination of Fender reverb with Johnny’s fingerpicking style
(including the use of a capo, when required by a change of key) had effectively
created a new guitar sound.

None of his Federal recordings caused much of a stir, but he felt he was not being
given the promotion he deserved, so when his contract was not renewed he moved
to Hollywood’s Modern Records, where he first recorded for them in January 1955.

With backing from the top notch Maxwell Davis Orchestra he recorded ‘Hot Little
Mama’, ‘Love To Love You’ and ‘Don’t Touch Me’, this time as Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson.
Modern director Joe Bihari allegedly saw the film ‘Johnny Guitar’, and thus was his

new signing christened!

Johnny’s most successful release for Modern (albeit his recordings were released

on the RPM subsidiary) was a cover of Earl King’s ‘Those Lonely Lonely Nights’,
which went to number 10 in the R&B charts, and out-sold the original in most areas.
He didn’t want to record it, because he considered himself a songwriter. That success
thrust him into the blues market, even though he didn’t consider himself a blues

artiste, and didn’t want to be pigeon-holed.