Terry Johnson of The Flamingos / 1938-2025
Terry Johnson's Biography
In 1954, Terry at age 16, recorded with his Baltimore group called THE WHISPERS, (not The Whispers of the 1960′s), on Gotham Records in Philadelphia. He wrote, arranged and sang lead on “Fool Heart” and “Are You Sorry”, released in 1955.
He brought that sound and talent to The Flamingos in 1956 with his first arrangement of music and vocals on “The Ladder of Love” on Decca Records, and continued with writing, arranging and producing, “Lovers Never Say Goodbye”, “Mio Amore”, “At The Prom”, “Heavenly Angel”, “You, Me and the Sea” and others on End Records. But it was his Grammy winning production and arrangement of “I Only Have Eyes For You” that pushed The Flamingos to the top of the charts. Terry arranged the music, vocals, played guitar and sang tenor/baritone on all of the songs on the albums “Flamingo Serenade”, “Requestfully Yours”, and “Flamingo Favorites”. He sang lead on the duets such as “Lovers Never Say Goodbye”, “Love Walked In”, “Time Was” and “But Not For Me” and also sang the lead on some of their album cuts such as “I’m In The Mood For Love”, “When I Fall In Love” and “Beside You”.
After The Flamingos, Terry formed his own group called Terry Johnson & The Modern Flamingos. When Nate Nelson left The Flamingos, he joined forces with Terry and his group which included member Billy Paul (before Billy's solo career). Terry and Nate co-wrote and sang “Let’s Be Lovers”, and released it under the name "The Starglows" on the Atco Label, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, and continued to tour.
After that, Nate joined The Platters and Terry went to Motown Records as an artist and producing partner with Smokey Robinson. As an artist, he recorded several records on the Gordy and Tamla Labels. He wrote, arranged, and produced songs for Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, The Marvelettes, Edwin Starr, The Spinners, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, David Ruffin, Jimmy Ruffin, Mickey Denton, Blinky and other Motown artists. (see his discography below)
After leaving Motown to fulfill his love and need to get back to live performance, Terry met Theresa Trigg in 1976, and they became writing & producing partners. She joined his group and they performed all over the world together while continuing to write and produce music with their traveling studio. After decades of traveling, they semi-retired from full time performing in 1995, but continued to write music and perform part time as a duet locally in Florida.
Terry was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and Frankie Valli convinced him to form another Flamingos group for touring. With the new group, they celebrated the Flamingos Diamond Anniversary with a new CD entitled ‘The Flamingos Diamond Anniversary Tour 2013’, they continued to record and produce new originals. Many of you saw Terry and Theresa with their Flamingos' group around the country and on the PBS specials called “Rock and Roll At 50” and “Doo-Wop Lost And Found”, filmed in Pittsburgh, PA and Atlantic City, NJ.
From The Whispers, to The Flamingos, to The Starglows, to Motown Records, Terry's legacy, sound and the success of his music continued. True to Terry's reputation of being ahead of his time, they enjoyed producing and co-producing with some of the days hottest young producers and musicians, creating a combination of styles from the past and present. They have had much success in releasing music from different genres including R&B, Latin, Country, Adult Contemporary and Pop.
In 2016, Terry and Theresa recorded and produced 'I Only Have Eyes For You' for the Boyz ll Men album “Under The Streetlight”, recorded in the famed East West Studios in Hollywood CA., released in 2017. That same year, Terry and Theresa were #1 for four consecutive weeks on the Euro Indie Music Chart Top 100 with their explosive Latin tune 'Knock Knock (Let Me In)'.
Under their record label, Hot Fun Records, they have introduced a younger sound via worldwide radio play under The Flamingos' name and have brought the Gen Z generation to hear the NEW while introducing them to the CLASSICS. This formula has generated over three million monthly listeners on The Flamingos Spotify page. The Clash Music Magazine Article states this about The Flamingos, “Their vaunted cover of ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ is among the most-listened to classics on TikTok this year” (Sept. 2024).
Terry passed away October 8, 2025, but Theresa continues to tour with the FLAMINGOS group and record. He left behind more recordings that will be released, as well as Theresa writing new songs, keeping the legacy of The Flamingos in the spotlight of current music. The label also represents several other artists and Theresa shows no signs of slowing down!
Terry's Inductions
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Grammy Hall of Fame
Rhythm & Blues Foundation
HAL Award
Doo-Wop Music Hall of Fame
Avenue of the Stars, Wildwood, NJ.
Terry's Jazz/R&B 'I Only Have Eyes For You' Video
Terry & Theresa (T&T) went to Reba McEntire's Starstruck Studios in Nashville to record an original song, and after finishing that, the producer wanted to record a new version of 'I Only Have Eyes For You' on another artist that was there. Terry loved the track, but the producer didn't like what the other artist was singing. He asked Terry to go into the vocal booth to give the guy an idea of how to deliver the song. When the producer heard Terry, he decided Terry had to be the one to sing it. Terry had no intensions of recording 'Eyes' again, but it turned out so well that T&T went back to Nashville to shoot a video on location. Hope you enjoy the "mink coat" warmth of Terry's voice.
