 Unlike many session musicians of the time he became known by name, but for a time also recorded under the pseudonym Johnny Beecher for the budget CRC Charter label to avoid contractual disputes.In the late 1950s and early 1960s he was a regular member of Henry Mancini's studio orchestra and in 1963 he recorded the Pink Panther theme, written by Mancini with Johnson in mind.Johnson said of the recording