John Ellison

John Ellison (born 11 August 1941) is an American/Canadian musician, best known for writing the song "Some Kind of Wonderful." He was born in Montgomery, West Virginia, and was raised in Landgraff, West Virginia, a small, poverty-stricken coal mining village near Welch, West Virginia, and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, receiving his Canadian citizenship in 2006.

Biography John was born Willie John Ellison to Joseph Ellison and Ella Mae Leonard in Eagle, Fayette, West Virginia. In the mid-1960s, Ellison traveled to Rochester, New York, where he met the original members of the Soul Brothers Five, becoming the sixth member and prompting the band to change its name to the Soul Brothers Six. The other members of the group included Charles Armstrong, Harry Armstrong, Vonnell Benjamin, Lester Pelemon, and Joe Johnson. The group signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records.

Ellison was the lead guitarist, singer, and songwriter for the group; and while traveling to a recording session in Philadelphia in 1967, Ellison wrote "She's Some Kind of Wonderful." This original version reached number 91 on the US Billboard chart. and for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year,

In October 2015, Ellison was formally inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

In 2020 Ellison released the awareness single "Wake-Up Call (Black Like Me)" co-composed and produced and arranged by Dutch producer Roger Heijster with good reviews in e.g., Rolling Stone and Forbes Magazine. The song was nominated "Song of the Year 2021" by Pop Awards.

On 11 August 2023 (his 82nd birthday) John released a new version of his classic "Some Kind of Wonderful", which serves as the title track for an album featuring eleven new songs penned by Ellison and produced and arranged by Roger Heijster. The single was on the first round of ballots in the category "Best American Roots Performance" for the 66th Grammy Awards nominations. On 29 December 2023, the second single "If I Had Just One Wish", a feel-good catchy reggae vibe calling for more love, peace and harmony, was released. The collection was dropped digitally, on CD as well as vinyl on 26 January 2024, from PopMi Music.

On 5 May 2024, John was inducted into the Rochester (NY) Music Hall Of Fame.