Johnny Young
Johnny Young (born Johnny Benjamin de Jong; 12 March 1947 – 13 August 2026) was an Australian singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, disc jockey, television and radio presenter, television producer and businessman. He nurtured Australian talent and was most known as being the creator and producer for his self-hosted TV series Young Talent Time, a series he conceived with his business partner Kevin Lewis, after drawing inspiration from the US children's variety program The Mickey Mouse Club and also for his string of talent schools, called the Johnny Young Talent Schools, which taught music and dance.
Young himself was an early Australian pop singer. He had a number-one hit in 1966 with a double-A-sided single of "Step Back" (written by Stevie Wright and George Young of the Easybeats) along with a cover of the Strangeloves' "Cara-lyn". He also had a hit record in 1967 with "Lady", written by the Bee Gees' frontman Barry Gibb who wrote several further hit songs for Young.
He was concurrently the host of the television pop music variety program The Go!! Show, having replaced host Ian Turpie. In the mid-1960s he toured with the Rolling Stones and supported Roy Orbison and the Easybeats.
As a composer, he penned the number-one hits "The Real Thing" and "The Girl That I Love" for Russell Morris, "The Star" for Ross D. Wyllie and "I Thank You" for Lionel Rose. He also wrote the anti–Vietnam War song "Smiley" for Ronnie Burns which was based on pop idol Normie Rowe.
His Young Talent Time television show screened on Network Ten from 1971 to 1988. It launched the careers of several teen pop stars and theatre actors including Danni Minogue, Tina Arena, Jamie Redfern, Jane Scali, Debra Byrne, Sally Boyden, Karen Knowles, Wade Robson and Jamie Churchill.
Typically each episode would feature the cast, known as "The Talent Team", singing and performing hits of the era and would end each episode with a hailing ballad-style sing-along rendition of the Beatles song "All My Loving" followed by his trade mark sign-off "Goodnight Australia".
The series also included a panelist of judges including Evie Hayes, Frank Tupper, Ronnie Burns, Honor Blackman, and Nancye Hayes.
At the Logie Awards of 1990, sponsored by TV Week, Young was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association's Hall of Fame in 2010 by Arena, who performed Young's song "The Star". He is the first person inducted into both halls of fame.
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