Foda Eddie Johns (born 1951) is a

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

n singer-songwriter in the

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

, soul, rock and

soft rock Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...

genres. Johns did not find mainstream success during his career and became destitute. The French electronic duo Daft Punk sampled Johns's 1979 disco song "More Spell on You" on their 2000 song " One More Time". Johns has never received

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

for the sample, as the publishing company that owns the rights could not trace him. Johns is estimated to be owed a sum "in the high six-to-seven-figure range" based on

streams A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

alone.

Early life

Johns was born in 1951 in Liberia. His father was an accountant and his mother was a nurse. Altogether, they had eight children. In an article in the '' Los Angeles Times'', Johns stated that his mother "was always singing or humming while doing housework." Staff writer August Brown stated in that same article that Johns, too, "discovered he had a gift for singing." He "fell in love with American rock and soul artists like

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

, Johnnie Taylor,

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

and Eddie Floyd." Brown added that Johns "moved to Paris in 1977 to make records" and "sometimes struggled to earn money, and experienced bouts of homelessness there."

Career

Johns recorded two albums while living in Paris, ''More Spell on You'' and ''Paris Metro''. He also recorded a few singles and EPs. When his musical career in Europe slowed down, he moved to the United States, first to New York and later to California where he currently resides.

"One More Time" sampling

" One More Time" is a song by the French electronic music duo

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...

. It was named one of the greatest songs of the decade by '' Pitchfork'', and '' Rolling Stone'' named it one of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". '' Mixmag'' readers voted it the greatest dance record of all time. Daftpunklapremiere2010

"One More Time" contains a

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

of the 1979 disco song "More Spell on You" by Johns, which is uncredited in the ''Discovery'' liner notes. An article in Boing Boing stated that "Daft Punk chopped and flipped a disco sample to create One More Time." Johns, who has been destitute for decades, did not receive royalties for the sample. A representative for Daft Punk confirmed the use of the sample and that the duo continued to pay royalties to GM Musipro, the French publishing company that owned the rights to "More Spell on You". A representative of GM Musipro said they had never been able to locate Johns, and that they would follow up on the matter after an investigation by the '' Los Angeles Times'' in 2021. Music industry attorney Erin Jacobson stated during that investigation that "smaller artists are more vulnerable to infringements, but it’s a common problem that the rights owner can’t be found, or the record company has gone out of business, or it’s unclear who owns the rights." The substantial royalties available for a musician like Johns could make all the difference in the world regarding his quality of life. As for how much those royalties could be, Jacobson estimated that "a song with that amount of streams would be earning in the high six-to-seven-figure range on streams alone."

Discography

Studio albums

*''More Spell on You'' (1979) *''Paris Métro'' (1980)

Singles

*"Sag Warum" (1978) *" I Put a Spell on You" (with M. Diggo) (1978) *"More Spell on You" (1979)

References

External links

Discography at Discogs {{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Eddie Liberian male musicians Dance musicians Disco musicians Living people 1951 births