Are you a songwriter? See below for how to play this song’s chords and the riff. Anyway, I’m a songwriter and I just discovered tonight that a song which only a few people in the world know I actually wrote has over 1.8 million views on YouTube. It was my dream years ago to be a one hit wonder. I think this is the closest I’ve gotten, done by ghost writing for a female singer. One YouTube video of The Johnny Depp song I wrote for Amy Anne to sing had over 101,600 views on YouTube on December 11, 2006, which I thought was cool and amazing, but that one is now removed.
For the record, I didn’t want to be named as the songwriter because, well, I’m a straight guy and as dude, I wouldn’t actually want to know that some guy wrote a song for a girl to sing to me, would I? Or would I care? Perhaps not. Anyway, these are not my thoughts or feelings. Amy Anne was a good friend and music partner and I love songwriting so I helped her express her one time crush on the actor musically.
The video that had 101K views isn’t available anymore, but in 2023, I was surprised tonight to find another one up that has 110k views. And then … I was further surprised by others that have thousands of views as well. And then … I found one that had 1.5 million views (what?!), and my jaw dropped. I’m just discovering this tonight November, 14, 2023. Wow, and after that I even found a cover too, the singer has a really cool voice, love her version of it. Finding a cover of your song by a person you do not know is a high honor for a songwriter, so this tonight is one of the little quiet highlights of my life.
Another was having re-written one of Jason Mraz’s songs (before he got famous) and having him ask for Amy and I to sing it to him a second time over the phone.
Anyway, looking at these Johnny Depp Song videos and listening again, I remember sitting many years ago with Amy Anne asking her things she liked about Johnny Depp in a plush booth in Old Ironsides in Sacramento Ca, and probably writing lyrics on a napkin, as she told me stuff, like about the tattoo that said “Wynona,” and then “Wyno” (sp?) and so on. The cool intro and signature riff of the song, by the way, was written by Hence Philips on guitar, who is one of the voices with Amy Anne on the versions you can hear on line. Hence who played bass with Jackie Greene and was in my old band with Amy Anne.
Now, if I only had dollar for every Johnny Depp song play of this song on YouTube, I’d have 1.8 million dollars and then I could, um, I don’t know. I wouldn’t really do anything differently with more money at this point. Or would I? It’s just a fun daydream, because views on YouTube are worth $0 to content creators, as far as I can tell. Glad to do my small part to make Google some money with all those views. You’re welcome, Google.
Views Tally. For Fun. Here’s what I found.
1 – 1,508,577 views, posted Apr 23, 2006
2 – 110,281 views, posted Feb 9, 2007
3 – 101,600 views, (posted DEC 11, 2006 REMOVED)
4 – 87,759 views, posted Jul 7, 2006
5 – 11,780 views, posted Apr 13, 2009
6 – 7,390 views, posted Sep 25, 2015
7 – 2,879 views, posted Jun 19, 2010
8 – 1,874 views, posted Jul 28, 2012 (Great cover by Marie Ishihara)
9 – 1,041 views, posted Aug 5, 2011
__________
1,833,091 Views
Chords for Johnny Depp Song by the Amy Anne Band
Here is how I wrote and played the song with Amy before she formed the Amy Anne Band. Here are the original guitar chords in case you want to play this song.
The Riff
Johnny Depp Song Riff. F#, F# - F#, F# - F, F# - E E----------------------- T B----------------------- A G----------------------- B D-------4------3-----2-- A----------------------- E----2------2-----2-----
Verse: (How I think of the chords): B | D/F# in bass | G#/C# | G/E | Bm | F# | A | Bm
To lyrics: “Johnny Depp, you’re hip, I’d like to…”
The actual cord names according to this online guitar chord namer.
B major F#m7#5
E a d g b e E a d g b e
x=========x. x=========o
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- 1 - - - - -~-~-~-~-~-
- - - - - - - - 1 1 1 -
- - 3 3 3 - - - - - - -
- - - - - - fret9 > - 3 - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
C#/F C/E
E a d g b e E a d g b e
x=========x. x=========o
- - - - - - -~-~-~-~-~-
-~-~-~-~-~- - - 1 1 1 -
- - 1 1 1 - - - - - - -
- - - - - - fret7 > - 3 - - - -
- 3 - - - -< fret8 - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Bm add(4) F#11
E a d g b e E a d g b e
x=========0. x=======o=o
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- 1 - - - - 1 - - - - -
- - - - 2 - - - - 2 - -
- - 3 4 - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - 3 4 - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Bridge: D | D/C# | Bm7 | Bm7/A | Em7 | F# | F#7
If you have been playing a while this will come naturally, but here is a diagram of how I play the first two chords of this using some open strings for more color. The trick is learning to mute strings you don’t want to play with the side pads of your fingers while making chords, and to get your fingers out of the way of the strings that you do want to ring out open.
Chords for “You’ve got tattoos, one said …”
D6/9sus2 A9/C#
E a d g b e E a d g b e
x=======o=o. x=====x=o=o
-~-~-~-~-~- -~-~-~-~-~-
- - - - - - fret4 > - 1 - - - -
- 1 - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - 3 4 - - < fret7 > - - 4 - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Bm add(4) Bm11/A
E a d g b e E a d g b e
x=========o x=o=======o
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- 1 - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - 2 - - - - - 2 -
- - 3 4 - - - - 3 4 - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Em7 F#11
E a d g b e E a d g b e
o===o=o=o=o x=======o=o
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- 1 - - - - 1 - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - 2 - -
- - - - - - - 3 4 - - -
- - - - - -
1 comment
How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?