"Johnny Cougar" is the original recording name of John Mellencamp. Shortly after his first release, Mellencamp switched to John Cougar, the name that saw him have his first success. Once he had enough star power to do so, he added his original last name and recorded as John Cougar Mellencamp and, eventually, simply John Mellencamp. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.