By Matthew Young
For HDMedia
Friday will be a special day for the residents of Welch, as they welcome one of their own back to the coalfields of McDowell County.
John Ellison, 84, the songwriter and musician best known for penning the 1967 classic “(She’s) Some Kind of Wonderful,” will return to the place that raised him for John Ellison Appreciation Day.
The day will begin at Mount View High School, where Ellison will share his life experiences with elementary, middle and high school students. A VIP luncheon and a parade through the city will follow. The evening will conclude with a free black-tie dinner open to the public at the National Guard Armory, featuring a special performance from Ellison.
John Ellison Appreciation Day schedule
WHERE: Various locations in Welch
WHEN: Friday
SCHEDULE:
- 9-10:45 a.m.: Mount View High School, 950 Mount View Road, student discussions
- Noon-2 p.m.: VIP luncheon, Jack Caffrey Arts & Cultural Center, 143 Wyoming St.
- 4 p.m.: Parade (begins at Welch City Hall, 88 Howard St.)
- 6 p.m.: Black-tie dinner and special performance by John Ellison at National Guard Armory, 600 Stewart St.
TICKETS: The dinner is free and open to the public.
MORE INFO: facebook.com/cityofwelchwv
Humble beginnings
John Ellison was born on Aug. 11, 1941, in Montgomery, on the banks of the Kanawha River, in a two-room shack his father built out of driftwood.
“My mother told me that, when I was 2 years old, she woke up in the middle of the night because the house was moving,” Ellison told the Gazette-Mail on Wednesday. “She stepped out of bed, and water came up almost to her knees.”
Within moments, Ellison’s family home was washed down the Kanawha River. And while the family escaped the flood unharmed, everything they owned was gone.
“I grew up in total poverty,” Ellison said. “My father earned $600 a year working in the coal mines. I looked at how hard he worked but still never had anything. My mother kept a lock on the refrigerator so we couldn’t go in. The only time we could only eat was when they took the lock off.”
At just 17 years old and dissatisfied with the life choices available to a poor, Black teenager in mid-20th-century West Virginia, in 1959, Ellison bought a one-way ticket to Rochester, New York, to pursue his dream of becoming a musician.
‘Some kind of wonderful’
While in Rochester, Ellison became a founding member of Soul Brothers Six. And while Ellison said the band enjoyed a fair amount of regional success through the mid-1960s, it was an opportunity in Philadelphia in 1967 that would change Ellison’s life.
“I was seeing a woman in Rochester,” Ellison recalled. “We knew, with me going to Philadelphia, that would be the end of our relationship. The day I had to go, she drove me to the airport and gave me some sandwiches she made me to take on the plane. And I just thought to myself, ‘Baby, you are some kind of wonderful.’ And that’s where the song came from. I think I wrote the rest of it on the plane.”
The song was a hit for the Soul Brothers Six in 1967, reaching No. 91 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1974, Grand Funk Railroad covered “(She’s) Some Kind of Wonderful,” dropping the “(She’s)” for their version. It reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 this time and opened the floodgates of other artists recording and releasing versions of their own. Among the better-known versions are those recorded by Rod Stewart, Huey Lewis and The Fantastic Johnny C.
Ellison said “Some Kind of Wonderful” has been recorded by 74 artists since 1967. He never sold the rights to the song, so he has received a percentage of the royalties for every version commercially released.
Ellison uses the name for his line of Some Kind of Wonderful Seasoning, which is widely available at grocery stores in West Virginia.
A West Virginia state of mind
Ellison now lives in Florida, but returning home to McDowell County, he said, is always special. After his family home was lost in the Montgomery flood, the family relocated to Landgraff, just outside Welch. Ellison grew up watching coal trains roll through the McDowell County seat.
On Friday, however, Ellison isn’t coming home for just a simple visit. He is coming back to Welch so the entire city can celebrate his life with him.
“I’m very honored that they’re doing this,” Ellison said. “It was something completely out of the realm of my imagination. What I hope it does is inspire the young people coming up that anything is possible. You can be whoever or whatever you want to be in your life, as long as you believe in yourself and trust in the man upstairs.”
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