Virgil Johnson (1935-2013), of Lubbock and Odessa, was the lead singer of The Velvets, the only black doo-wop group to emerge from West Texas.
While teaching eighth-grade English at Blackshear Junior High in Odessa, Johnson heard two of his students, Mark Prince and Clarence Rigby, singing a duet and decided to enlist them in a new group. He immediately recruited Robert Thursby and William Solomon to also join, while Johnson sang the lead. The quintet caught the ear of Roy Orbison in 1960, who was happy to introduce them to his current producer and the owner of Monument Records, Fred Foster. Foster signed and named their group The Velvets (Featuring Virgil Johnson). At Nashville’s RCA studios, The Velvets recorded their first session, including singles “That Lucky Old Sun”/”Time And Again” (written by Orbison) and “Tonight (Could Be The Night)” (Johnson)/”Spring Fever”(Orbison). The Velvets released 9 singles, several of which charted as hits, until they decided to stop recording and move back to Texas in 1966. Johnson continued to teach and serve as principal at Dunbar-Struggs Junior High in Lubbock, before retiring in 1993.
Virgil Johnson was inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame in 1994.
