John Milton Owens (October 17, 1912 – January 26, 1982) was a singer-songwriter, pianist, and star of the longest running network radio show Don McNeil's Breakfast Club.

He was known as "The Cruising Crooner" because of his unique showmanship of cruising through mostly female audiences attending the live Breakfast Club broadcasts, and crooning love ballads to the blushing and giggling women, often singing directly to them, one at a time, sitting on their laps, and nuzzling close to them.

From his start in small, local Chicago radio stations holding up applause signs and his brief performances in vaudeville, to his fame on NBC and ABC as a radio singing star with movie star looks, Owens found ways to stay in the spotlight in popular music with catchy songs, love ballads, and even Hawaiian songs.

Owens, who married fellow Chicago radio star Helen Streiff in the early 1930s, started his recording career with independent label, Tower Records, and then after the huge success of "The Hukilau Song", and "I'll Weave a Lei of Stars for You" in 1948, he was signed to Decca, the biggest label at the time.

Though his songs have been covered by numerous well-known artists – Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Bing Crosby, Freddy Martin, The Merry Macs, Andy Williams, Perry Como, Dinah Shore, Woody Herman, Vaughn Monroe, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Kay Kyser Orchestra, Sammy Kaye Orchestra, Nat "King" Cole, Orrin Tucker, Spike Jones, Pat Boone, Ferlin Husky, The Platters, The Cadets / The Jacks (of "Why Don't You Write Me" fame), Alfred Apaka, Don Ho and Frank Sinatra – they have not always been correctly credited to him, have lacked adequate information about him, or have been misattributed to blues singer Jack Owens.