| Martin Johnson | |
| Birth Name: | Martin Bennett Johnson |
| Birth Date: | 9 September 1985 |
| Birth Place: | Andover, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Spouse: | Naomi Johnson |
| Years Active: | 2005–present |
| Current Member Of: | Boys Like Girls • The Night Game |
Martin Bennett Johnson (born September 9, 1985) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the bands Boys Like Girls and the Night Game.
He has written and produced for various artists, including Avril Lavigne, Daughtry, Jason Derulo, Christina Perri, Gavin Degraw, and Hot Chelle Rae. Johnson is credited with having several RIAA-certified multi-platinum songs ("The Other Side", "Here's to Never Growing Up", "Two Is Better Than One" (with Taylor Swift), "Love Drunk", "The Great Escape," "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home"). Songs he has written have sold over 10 million copies and he has had nine top 40 charting singles.[1]
Martin Johnson was born in Andover, Massachusetts, on September 9, 1985, and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is of English descent.[2] He is married to singer-songwriter Naomi Cooke of the American country music group Runaway June.[3] They have 1 child together.
See main article: Boys Like Girls. Johnson is the lead singer and plays guitar for the band Boys Like Girls. The band, which consists of Johnson, Paul DiGiovanni, John Keefe, and Morgan Dorr (as of 2011) was formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 2005. Since releasing their debut album in 2006, the band has sold over a million albums and has accumulated over one hundred twenty million plays for their music on MySpace.[4] Johnson produced the band's 2012 record, Crazy World. The group then went on hiatus with Johnson saying the band hasn't broken up and may continue writing and recording.[5] The band has since resumed recording and are expecting to release their fourth studio album in the fall of 2023.
See main article: The Night Game. Johnson currently helms the new wave band The Night Game. The band released two singles in 2017, "The Outfield" and "Once In A Lifetime", and toured as an opening act with John Mayer. They also collaborated with Kygo on the song "Kids In Love". On February 1, 2018, The Night Game released a version of "Kids In Love" without Kygo and announced plans for a tour.
Johnson co-wrote, with Taylor Swift, the song "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" from the Hannah Montana Movie soundtrack.[6] Most recently, Johnson produced and co-wrote Avril Lavigne's "Here's to Never Growing Up", Jason Derulo's "The Other Side",[7] Karmin's "Acapella", Mike Posner's "The Way It Used To Be", Gavin Degraw's "Best I Ever Had", and Christina Perri's "Human". In 2016 he collaborated with a cappella group, Pentatonix.
Credits primarily adapted from AllMusic.[8]
| Year | Artist | Title | Album | Label | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "Hero/Heroine" | Boys Like Girls | Columbia | Writer | Debut single, No. 21 at Top 40, sole writer | ||
| "The Great Escape" | Single, No. 8 at Top 40, RIAA-certified Platinum | ||||||
| "Thunder" | Single, No. 22 at Top 40, sole writer | ||||||
| 2009 | "Love Drunk" | Love Drunk | Lead single, No. 7 at Top 40, RIAA-certified Platinum | ||||
| "Two Is Better Than One" | Single, No. 4 at Top 40, RIAA-certified Platinum, sole writer | ||||||
| "Heart Heart Heartbreak" | No. 32 at Top 40 | ||||||
| "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" | Hannah Montana: The Movie | RIAA-certified Platinum | |||||
| 2010 | Taylor Swift | "If This Was A Movie" | Speak Now (Deluxe Package) | Big Machine | |||
| 2011 | "Put Your Hearts Up" | Debut single | |||||
| "Why Don't You Love Me" | Whatever | RCA | |||||
| "Bad" | Symphony Soldier | Z Entertainment, Universal Republic | Producer, writer | Lead Single | |||
| 2012 | "Bad for Me" | Bad for Me | Debut single, Top 30 Mediabase (CHR) | ||||
| "9th Life" | The Connection | Eleven Seven | Writer | Deluxe edition bonus track | |||
| "Life As We Know It" | The American Dream | Diggit | Single | ||||
| "Be Your Everything" | Crazy World | Columbia | Producer, writer | Lead single | |||
| "Make It in America" | Victorious 2.0 | Nickelodeon / Sony / Columbia | Single | ||||
| "Getting Over You" | Vulnerable | Writer | |||||
| 2013 | "Human" | Head or Heart | Atlantic | Producer, writer | Lead single, RIAA-certified Platinum | ||
| "Baptized" | Baptized | RCA | |||||
| "Waiting for Superman" | Lead single, RIAA-certified Platinum | ||||||
| "Battleships" | Single | ||||||
| "Wild Heart" | |||||||
| "Long Live Rock & Roll" | Promotional single | ||||||
| "18 Years" | |||||||
| "Best I Ever Had" | Make a Move | Lead single | |||||
| "Everything Will Change" | |||||||
| "Rock n Roll" | Avril Lavigne | Producer | Single | ||||
| "Here's to Never Growing Up" | Producer, writer | Lead single, RIAA-certified Platinum | |||||
| "17" | |||||||
| "Hello Kitty" | Single | ||||||
| "Sippin' on Sunshine" | |||||||
| "Just for One Day" | Nothing to Lose | Columbia/SYCO | |||||
| "I Love LA" | |||||||
| "The Way It Used to Be" | RCA | Single | |||||
| "Acapella" | Pulses | Epic/Sony | Lead single, RIAA-certified Gold | ||||
| "Neon Love" | |||||||
| "The Other Side" | Tattoos and Talk Dirty | Lead single, RIAA-certified Platinum | |||||
| "Forget About Me" | Ungrateful | Writer | |||||
| "One for the Money" | |||||||
| "Lights Out in London" | Filthy Empire | ||||||
| "Welcome Home" | |||||||
| 2014 | "One Black Sheep" | Just Kids | |||||
| "Billion" | Single | ||||||
| "Beautiful to Me" | Never Been Better | Producer, writer | Single | ||||
| "Glory Days" | Take Me When You Go | RCA | |||||
| "A Night to Remember" | |||||||
| "Dreaming About You" | |||||||
| "You Got Me" | Producer | Lead single | |||||
| "Heartbreak Heard Around the World" | Producer, writer | Single | |||||
| "All We Got is Time" | After Hours | ||||||
| "Scarecrow" | It's About Us | Columbia | Debut single | ||||
| 2015 | "Sing" | Pentatonix | |||||
| "New Year's Day" | |||||||
| "America's Sweetheart" | Love Stuff | Single | |||||
| "Once in a Lifetime" | My House | Atlantic | Writer | ||||
| 2016 | "Yesterday's Song" | Lead single | |||||
| "Heavy" | Wings of the Wild | Sony Music Australia, HouseOfOZ | Producer, writer | Single | |||
| 2017 | "Kids in Love" | Kids in Love | Sony Music, Ultra Records | Writer | Single | ||
| 2021 | "Like a Lady" | What a Song Can Do | Big Machine | Single | |||
| Elle King & Miranda Lambert | "Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home)" | RCA | Producer, writer | Single | |||
| 2023 | Taylor Swift | "If This Was A Movie (Taylor's Version)" | Republic | Writer | Re-recorded song |
In addition to the above-listed, Johnson (co-)wrote every track on the following Boys Like Girls albums: Boys Like Girls (2006), Love Drunk (2009), and Crazy World (2012).