MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Singer songwriter John Ellison says his life has been some kind of wonderful. Ellison, 73, a guest Thursday on MetroNews Talkline, says he’s looking forward to being back in his home state over the Memorial Day Weekend in a West Virginia Music Hall of Fame event in Sutton.
“I’m a West Virginian to the bone,” Ellison told Talkline Host Hoppy Kercheval. “Yep, I’m West Virginian man, all the way.”
Ellison was born in Montgomery but grew up near Landgraff in McDowell County. He left home in the early 1960s to pursue dreams of performing. He took a bus to Rochester, NY.
“I had $3.25 in my pocket and nowhere to stay,” he recounted. “I tell everybody that God was watching over me. I got a job washing dishes in a restaurant but my mind was where I wanted to be.”
Ellison’s shared the story of how he wrote the song “Some Kind of Wonderful,” a song that’s sold 42 million copies. He wrote it in 20 minutes on a lunch bag while traveling from Rochester to Philadelphia. His subject was a woman he was seeing at the time who had made him lunch for his trip.
“I looked at her and said, ‘You know what? You’re some kind of wonderful and I’m going to write a song about you,’ and that’s how the song came about,” Ellison said.
Grand Funk Railroad recorded a version of the song in 1974 and it went to No. 3 on the charts.
“I thank God everyday that everything happened with this song as it did. It’s been recorded by 63 artists,” Ellison said, who has maintained the rights and publishing of all his songs.
Ellison will perform Sunday at Cafe Cimino in Braxton County during a fundraiser for the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. The “Garden Party” will also include fellow 2015 Hall inductees Russ Hicks and Bob Thompson. This year’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held in Charleston in October.
Ellison, who returns to McDowell County often to speak with schoolchildren, said he talks about his home state every chance he gets.
“They’re not aware of how much talent there is in West Virginia. West Virginia is full of talent and there’s a negative aspect about West Virginia, but people have no idea of what’s going on in West Virginia,” Ellison said.