Johnny in the Middle of the Park

	ⓘ This lostwave is classified as solved.
	Johnny in the Middle of the Park
Alternative name(s)	Johnny, The Grass Is Green
Artist(s)	Piero Cotto
Genre	Pop Rock
Year	1983
Status	Solved
Original poster	MrZSAC
Search duration	2020 - 2024
	File:JohnnyInTheMiddleOfThePark.mp3

Johnny In The Middle Of The Park (formerly known as "Johnny" or "The Grass is Green") is a solved pop-rock song by Italian singer Piero Cotto that was recorded in 1983 for the outro of the Italian sports show La Domenica Sportiva.

Background

On December 14th, 2020, the song was first posted by WatZatSong user MrZSAC, who stated that he found the song in a Dailymotion upload of an Italian sports program called La Domenica Sportiva, which aired on June 5th, 1983, where the song was used for the end-credits.^[1] It was played over montage footage of a boat race dubbed "the Formula One of the Sea", and the credits did not include any artist information for the song.^[2]

The song gained notoriety almost immediately, with it being posted to r/tipofmytongue and r/lostwave on the same day as the original post by a now-deleted user.^[3]^[4]

By late 2023, the search for the song had grown to the point where the song was featured in YouTuber NAETE's video called The Most Legendary Lost Songs On The Internet,^[5] and a subreddit was created for the search.^[6]

Debunked Leads

It was speculated that the song was stock music purchased by RAI (Italy's national broadcasting company), and that they had a database from which they could obtain the song.^[7] However, this was debunked by Reddit user One-Truth-5867, who confirmed that the song was created solely for RAI production and that they didn't know who made it after contacting a RAI editorial manager.^[8]

An Italian singer named Massimo Vita was suggested to be the artist behind the song, due to Vita's similar vocal tone and musical style, but this was debunked after the song was found.^[9]

Discovery

On February 25th, 2024, Reddit user MJIgaz4 posted a comparison between the singer's vocals and those of Italian musician Piero Cotto, which sounded identical.^[10]

On March 15th, 2024, Piero Cotto's son was contacted and confirmed that both his parents sang vocals on the song,^[11] and the song was identified as "Johnny In The Middle Of The Park" the following day after Piero himself was contacted.^[12]

On April 12th, 2024, Discord user Nel discovered that the copyright listing for the song was updated to include Cotto's name, as many of Cotto's songs were not directly attributed to him, but rather to his producers Aldo Pagani and Logan Michael, further confirming the song's identification.^[13]

Lyrics

Presumed Lyrics

(Verse 1)

Johnny in the middle of the park

Waiting for tomorrow

Hasn't got a penny or a mark

Or a road to follow

(Pre Chorus 1)

Doesn't have a realistic mind

Or a word to say

No we don't know where he's going to

Or from where he came

(Verse 2)

Johnny in the middle of a dream

(Papers?) in his pocket, oh yeah (Johnny, Johnny)

Hasn't got a brother or a queen

Johnny is a rocket

(Pre Chorus 2)

He's been moving on a one night stand

He's a one man show

And he's looking

For some warm place he can go

Till night is over

(Chorus)

Johnny had a little dream

Now things are not as bad as they seem

For there's something blowing in the air

Living without a care

The grass is green

(Guitar Solo)