Lonnie Donegan

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Lonnie Donegan

Lonnie Donegan in the 1970s
Background information
Birth name Anthony James Donegan
Also known as The King of Skiffle[1]
Born 29 April 1931(1931-04-29)
Glasgow, Scotland
Died 3 November 2002 (aged 71)
Peterborough, England
Genre(s) Skiffle, Traditional pop music
Occupation(s) Musician, singer, songwriter
Instrument(s) Guitar, vocals, banjo
Years active Late 1940s-2002
Label(s) Pye Records
Decca Records
United Artists Records
Associated acts Tony Donegan Jazz Band
Chris Barber's Jazz Band
Lonnie Donegan's Skiffle Group

Lonnie Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002[2]) was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s.[3][4] The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums states Donegan was "Britain's most successful and influential recording artist before The Beatles. He chalked up 24 successive Top 30 hits, and was the first UK male to score two U.S. Top 10s".[2]

Contents

[edit] Early life and trad jazz

Born as Anthony James Donegan in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra, he moved with his family in 1933 to East Ham, then in Essex, now part of Greater London.[5]

Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape The Blitz in World War II, and he attended St. Ambrose College, initially at the school's original site in Dunham Road, Altrincham.

In the early 1940s he mostly listened to swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar.[5] Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest and he bought his first guitar at the age of fourteen in 1945.[5] From listening to BBC Radio broadcasts in the following years he began learning songs such as "Frankie and Johnny", "Puttin' On the Style", and "The House of the Rising Sun".[5] By the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.[6]

The first band he played in was the trad jazz band led by Chris Barber, who approached him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his band. Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and tried to bluff his way through the audition. More on personality than playing, he was brought into Barber's band.[5] His stint with the band was interrupted when he was called up for National service in 1949, but his military service in Vienna gave him contact with American troops, and access to records as well as the opportunity to listen to the American Forces Network radio station.[6] Whilst in the Army he played the drums with the Wolverines Jazz Band.[7]

In 1952 he formed his first group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall.[5] Donegan was a fan of Johnson, and took his first name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and "Lonnie Donegan", and Donegan was happy to keep the name.[8]

In 1953 cornetist Ken Colyer, enjoying hero status for having spent time in a New Orleans jail (due to a visa problem), returned to England and, when invited to play with Chris Barber's band, became a moving figure within it. With the new name, Ken Colyer's Jazzmen, the group, with Donegan, made its initial public appearance on 11 April 1953 in Copenhagen. The following day, Chris Albertson recorded the group (as well as a Monty Sunshine Trio, with Donegan and Barber) for Storyville Records. These were Donegan's first commercially released recordings.[citation needed]

[edit] Skiffle

While playing in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played both guitar and banjo as part of their Dixieland jazz set. He also began playing with two other band members during the intervals, to provide what was called on their posters a "skiffle" break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother, Bill, after recalling the Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930s.[5] In 1954 Colyer left, and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band.[6]

With a washboard, a tea chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan entertained audiences with folk and blues songs by artists such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie.[5] This proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version of Lead Belly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side.[5] It was a hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960s) but ironically, because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money from it beyond his original session fee. It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and reached the Top Ten in the United States.[5] Total sales exceeded three million copies,[9] gaining Donegan his first gold disc.[7] His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954.[5] It was banned by the BBC for its suggestive lyrics, which hurt overall sales but gave Donegan a slight veneer of daring and rebelliousness.[5] Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band by then, and by the spring of 1955, Donegan signed a recording contract with Pye. His next single "Lost John" reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart.[5]

His success at the time saw Donegan travel to the United States, where he appeared on television on both the Perry Como Show and Paul Winchell Shows.[5] Returning to the UK, Donegan recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in the summer of 1956, which featured songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP was a hit, securing sales in the hundreds of thousands.[5] Donegan was so popular in 1956 that an EP, Skiffle Session, and an album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, also reached the Top 30 in the UK Singles Chart.[10] The skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one of the many skiffle groups that followed was The Quarrymen formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" single was number one on the UK chart in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.[2] The same record was the first ever double-sided UK number one, and the first 'live' chart-topper.[11] In 1957 Donegan appeared in pantomime in London, made his film debut in 1958, and was on the bill of the Royal Variety Performance that same year.[7]

Donegan went on to make a series of popular records with successes including his other UK chart-toppers, "Cumberland Gap", and, particularly "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)". The latter was his only other hit song in the U.S., duly released on Dot.[5] The song became the second million seller for Donegan.[12] He turned to a music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" which was not well received by skiffle fans, or in an attempted but ultimately unsuccessful American release by Atlantic in 1960, but it reached number one in the UK. The live recording was a cleaned-up version of the raunchy old pub song, "What Do You Think About That?".[11] Donegan became the first British vocalist to achieve the distinction of a third million seller.[13]

Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennett (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevitt's skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett on upright bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby - on drums or other percussion instruments and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.[5]

By October 1960, the UK music magazine, NME's Annual Reader's Poll stated Donegan was 'Vocal Personality of the Year'.[14] In May 1961, Donegan adapted the traditional cocaine-snorter's anthem, "Take a Whiff on Me", into his own cheery bar room sing-along, "Have A Drink on Me".[15]

He continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962, before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music.[5]

[edit] Later career

Donegan recorded sporadically during the 1960s, including some sessions at Hickory Records in Nashville, Tennessee with Charlie McCoy, Floyd Cramer and The Jordanaires. After 1964, he was primarily occupied as a record producer for most of the decade at Pye Records. Among those he worked with during this period was Justin Hayward.[5] Donegan also started his own music publishing business, Tyler Music.[16] In view of the professional connection with Hayward, the company held the copyright of The Moody Blues hit, "Nights in White Satin" until 1974.[17] 1970's flop album, Lonniepops - Lonnie Donegan Today marked the end of his stay at Pye.[9]

Donegan was unfashionable and generally ignored through the late 1960s and 1970s (although he wrote "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for Tom Jones in 1969), and he began to play on the American cabaret circuit.[16] A notable departure from his normal style was an a cappella recording of "The Party's Over". There was a reunion concert with the original Chris Barber band in Croydon in June 1975 - notable for a bomb scare, meaning that the recording had to be finished in the studio, though patrons were treated to an impromptu concert in the car park.[citation needed] The resultant release was entitled, The Great Re-Union Album.[5]

He suffered his first heart attack in 1976 whilst in the United States and underwent quadruple bypass surgery. He returned to the public's attention in 1978, when he made a re-recording of his early songs with such figures as Ringo Starr, Elton John, Ronnie Wood and Brian May.[5] Entitled Puttin' On the Style, it was produced by Adam Faith.[1][5] A follow-up album featuring Albert Lee saw Donegan working in a less familiar country and western vein. By 1980, he was making regular concert appearances again, and another album with Barber followed. Donegan made another appearance at the Royal Variety Performance in November 1981.[18] In 1983 Donegan toured with Billie Jo Spears, and in 1984, he made his theatrical debut in a revival of the 1920 musical Mr. Cinders. More concert tours followed, along with a move from Florida to Spain. In 1992 Donegan underwent further bypass surgery following another heart attack.[5]

In 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years, with a tour of his own and Donegan's band. The reunion concert and the tour, were recorded on CD, and also on video (DVD). In 1997 Donegan was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ivor Novello Award, an occasion which saw him singing with longtime fan, Van Morrison.[9][16]

Donegan experienced another late renaissance when in 2000 he appeared on Morrison's album The Skiffle Sessions - Live in Belfast 1998, a critically acclaimed album featuring Donegan sharing vocals with Morrison and also featuring Barber, with a guest appearance by Dr. John. Donegan also played at the Glastonbury Festival,[9] and was awarded the MBE in 2000.

[edit] Family

Donegan married three times. He had two daughters by his first wife, Maureen Tyler (divorced 1962), a son and a daughter by his second wife, Jill Westlake (divorced 1971), and three sons by his third wife, Sharon, whom he married in 1977.

[edit] Death

Lonnie Donegan died in November 2002, aged 71, after suffering a heart attack in Peterborough midway through a UK tour, and shortly before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison with The Rolling Stones. He had suffered from cardiac problems since the 1970s and had several heart attacks in his latter years.

[edit] Legacy

Mark Knopfler released a tribute song to Donegan entitled "Donegan's Gone" on his 2004 album, Shangri-La, and said that he was one of his greatest musical influences.[3] Donegan's music formed the basis for a musical starring his two sons. Lonnie D - The Musical took its name from the Chas & Dave tribute song which started the show. Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a new band that performed his father's material. Donegan's eldest son, Anthony, also formed his own band, under the name Lonnie Donegan Jnr.

On his album A Beach Full of Shells, Al Stewart payed tribute to Donegan in the song "Katherine of Oregon". Additionally, in the song "Class of '58", he describes a seminal British entertainer who is either Donegan or a composite including him.

[edit] Quotations
  • "In England, we were separated from our folk music tradition centuries ago and were imbued with the idea that music was for the upper classes. You had to be very clever to play music. When I came along with the old three chords, people began to think that if I could do it, so could they. It was the reintroduction of the folk music bridge which did that." — Interview, 2002.[citation needed]
  • "He was the first person we had heard of from Britain to get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts, and we studied his records avidly. We all bought guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the man." — Paul McCartney[citation needed]
  • "He really was at the very cornerstone of English blues and rock." — Brian May.[3]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

  • "Rock Island Line" / "John Henry" (1955) - UK #8; U.S. #8 †
  • "Diggin' My Potatoes" / "Bury My Body" (1956) †
  • "Lost John" / "Stewball" (1956) - UK #2; U.S. #58 †
  • "Bring A Little Water, Sylvie" / "Dead or Alive" (1956) ‡
  • "On A Christmas Day" / "Take My Hand Precious Lord" (1956) ‡
  • "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" / "I'm Alabammy Bound" (1957) - UK #4 ‡
  • "Cumberland Gap" / "Love Is Strange" (1957) - UK #1 ‡
  • "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" (1957) - UK #1 ‡
  • "My Dixie Darlin'" / "I'm Just a Rolling Stone" (1957) - UK #10 ‡
  • "Jack O' Diamonds" / "Ham 'N' Eggs" (1957) - UK #14 ‡
  • "The Grand Coulee Dam" / "Nobody Loves Like an Irishman" (1958) - UK #6 ‡
  • "Sally Don't You Grieve" / "Betty, Betty, Betty" (1958) - UK #11 ‡
  • "Lonesome Traveller" / "Times are Getting Hard Boys" (1958) - UK #28 ‡
  • "Midnight Special" / "When The Sun Goes Down" (1958) ‡
  • "Lonnie's Skiffle Party" / "Lonnie Skiffle Party Pt.2" (1958) - UK #23 ‡
  • "Tom Dooley" / "Rock O' My Soul" (1958) - UK #3 ‡
  • ""Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)" / "Aunt Rhody" (1959) - UK #3; U.S. #5 ‡
  • "Fort Worth Jail" / "Whoa Buck" (1959) - UK #14 ‡
  • "Battle of New Orleans" / "Darling Corey" (1959) - UK #2 ‡
  • "Kevin Barry" / "My Lagan Love" (1959) ‡
  • "Sal's Got A Sugar Lip" / "Chesapeake Bay" (1959) - UK #13 ‡
  • "Hold Back Tomorrow" - UK #26 ¶
  • "San Miguel" / "Talking Guitar Blues" (1959) - UK #19 ‡
  • "My Old Man's A Dustman" / "The Golden Vanity" (1960) - UK #1 ↑
  • "I Wanna Go Home (Wreck Of the 'John B')" / "Jimmy Brown The Newsboy" (1960) - UK #5 ↓
  • "Lorelei" / "In All My Wildest Dreams" (1960) - UK #10
  • "Rockin' Alone" - UK #44 ♠
  • "Lively" / "Black Cat (Cross My Path Today)" (1960) - UK #13 ↑
  • "Virgin Mary" / "Beyond The Sunset" (1960) - UK #27
  • "(Bury Me) Beneath The Willow" / "Leave My Woman Alone" (1961)
  • "Have A Drink on Me" / "Seven Daffodils" (1961) - UK #8 ↑
  • "Michael, Row the Boat" / "Lumbered" (1961) - UK #6 ↑
  • "The Comancheros" / "Ramblin' Round" (1961) - UK #14
  • "The Party's Over" / "Over the Rainbow" (1962) - UK #9
  • "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" / "Keep on the Sunnyside" (1962)
  • "Pick A Bale of Cotton" / "Steal Away" (1962) - UK #11 ↑
  • "The Market Song" / "Tit-Bits" (with Max Miller) (1962)
  • "Losing By A Hair" / "Trumpet Sounds" (1963)
  • "It Was A Very Good Year" / "Rise Up" (1963)
  • "Lemon Tree" / "I've Gotta Girl So Far" (1963)
  • "500 Miles Away From Home" / "This Train" (1963)
  • "Beans in My Ears" / "It's a Long Road to Travel" (1964)
  • "Fisherman's Luck" / "There's A Big Wheel" (1964)
  • "Get Out Of My Life" / "Won't You Tell Me" (1965)
  • "Louisiana Man" / "Bound For Zion" (1965)
  • "World Cup Willie" / "Where In This World are We Going" (1966)
  • "I Wanna Go Home" / "Black Cat (Cross My Path Today)" (1966)
  • "Aunt Maggie's Remedy" / "My Sweet Marie" (1967)
  • "Toys" / "Relax Your Mind" (1968)
  • "My Lovely Juanita" / "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" (1969)
  • "Burning Bridges" / "'Til I Can't Take No More" (1970)
  • "Come to Australia" / "Don't Blame the Child" (1971)
  • "Speak To The Sky" / "Get Out of My Life" (1972)
  • "Jump Down Turn Around (Pick a Bale of Cotton)" / "Lost John Blues" (1973 - Australia only release)
  • "Who's Gonna Play this Old Piano" / "South" (1973) (with Kenny Ball's Jazzmen)
  • "Lost John" / "Jenny's Ball" (1976)
  • "I've Lost my Little Willie" / "Censored" (1976)
  • "Rock Island Line" / "Ham 'N' Eggs" (1978)
  • "Puttin' On the Style" / "Drop Down Baby" (1978)
  • "Donegan's Dancing Sunshine Band" / "Leaving Blues" (1987) (with Monty Sunshine)

[2] [9] [19]

[edit] Albums

  • Lonnie Donegan Showcase (December 1956) - UK # 2; UK #26 ‡
  • Lonnie (November 1957) - UK # 3
  • Tops with Lonnie (September 1958)
  • Lonnie Donegan (December 1958) - (U.S. only release)
  • Lonnie Rides Again (May 1959)
  • Skiffle Folk Music (December 1959) - (U.S. only release)
  • More! Tops with Lonnie (April 1961)
  • Sing Hallelujah (December 1962)
  • The Lonnie Donegan Folk Album (August 1965)
  • Lonniepops - Lonnie Donegan Today (1970)
  • Lonnie Donegan Meets Leinemann (1974)
  • Country Roads (1976)
  • Puttin' On the Style (February 1978)
  • Sundown (May 1979)
  • Jubilee Concert (December 1981) - (live double album)
  • Muleskinner Blues (January 1999)
  • The Last Tour (October 2006)

[2] [9]

[edit] Compilation albums

Numerous, including:-

[2] [9]

[edit] EPs

  • Skiffle Session EP (June 1956) - UK #20 †
    • "Railroad Bill" / "Stackalee" / "Ballad of Jessie James" / "Ol' Riley"
  • "Cumberland Gap" / "Wabash Cannonball" / "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" / "Only My Pillow" / "Grab It and Growl" (November 1981) (with The Shakin' Pyramids)

[2] [9]

[edit] Billing

Most of the above records were accredited to Lonnie Donegan; except, as follows:
† Billed as the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group
‡ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Skiffle Group
¶ Billed as Lonnie Donegan meets Miki & Griff with the Lonnie Donegan Group
↑ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Group
↓ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and Wally Stott's Orchestra
♠ Billed as Miki & Griff with the Lonnie Donegan Group

[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Roberts, David (1998). Guinness Rockopedia (1st ed.). London: Guinness Publishing Ltd.. p. 124. ISBN 0-85112-072-5. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 164-165. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
  3. ^ a b c Skiffle king Donegan dies (BBC), accessed 5 January 2008.
  4. ^ Jennifer Kelly (2008-10-20). "Hats Off: An Interview with Roy Harper". Pop Matters. http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/64093/hats-off-an-interview-with-roy-harper/. Retrieved on 20 October 2008. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w "Biography by Bruce Eder". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifexqu5ld0e~T1. Retrieved on 23 June 2009. 
  6. ^ a b c Bruce Eder. "Lonnie Donegan : Music Artist : Videos, News, Photos & Ringtones : MTV". Allmusic. MTV. http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/donegan_lonnie/artist.jhtml. Retrieved on 19 September 2008. 
  7. ^ a b c Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 73. ISBN 0-214-20512-6. 
  8. ^ I love 1960s music: Lonnie Donegan (BBC) accessed 5 January 2008.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. pp. 282-284. ISBN 1-84195-017-3. 
  10. ^ Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 31. ISBN 0-85112-250-7. 
  11. ^ a b Roberts, David (2001). British Hit Singles (14th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 30-32. ISBN 0-85156-156-X. 
  12. ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 113. ISBN 0-214-20512-6. 
  13. ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 123-124. ISBN 0-214-20512-6. 
  14. ^ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. pp. 87. CN 5585. 
  15. ^ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. pp. 94. CN 5585. 
  16. ^ a b c "Obituary by Chris Welch". Independent.co.uk. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lonnie-donegan-603344.html. Retrieved on 27 June 2009. 
  17. ^ Spiritus-temporis.com - accessed June 2009
  18. ^ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 360. CN 5585. 
  19. ^ "Allmusic ((( Lonnie Donegan > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles )))". http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifexqu5ld0e~T51. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Donegan"
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