Lonnie Donegan

Before I post another video with Pop songtress supreme Petula Clark, let’s back up a little to 1955-56 and put her career into perspective. Rock and Roll was on the horizon, and the Skiffle music craze was huge in England. Pet’s style obviously wasn’t going to mesh with that.

Lonnie Donegan

Skiffle was popularized by Lonnie Donegan, who had a huge influence on British kids, including John Lennon. Donegan seemed to have a wide range of musical interests and influences, including Woody Guthrie, who was later a primary inspiration for Bob Dylan. Donegan performs Guthrie’s “Grand Cooley Dam” in this video:

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/FEB07/LonnieDonegan.flv 320 235]

Donegan had a gigantic hit with “Rock Island Line,” a song that he apparently first heard on an old record by Leadbelly. It was such a big hit for Donegan that it crossed over to America, and Stan Freberg did a parody of it.

The audio player has Donegan’s “Rock Island Line”, along with a follow-up hit, “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour On The Bedpost Overnight?”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/FEB07/RockIslandLine.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/FEB07/ChewingGum.mp3]

And here is Leadbelly doing “Rock Island Line”, along with Freberg’s parody of Donegan:

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/FEB07/Leadbelly.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/FEB07/StanFreberg.mp3]

3 thoughts on “Lonnie Donegan”

  1. Exactly. Who doesn’t like Elvis? Also, Stan Freberg is a forgotten gem. More, please!

  2. That’s what was great, is great, about Rock and Roll. It a big mix of a lot of things. I like Elvis doing “Mystery Train” equally with “Downtown” equally with “Take Five”.

    The Freberg parody is good. Peter Leeds, playing a record producer, explains why the song is a total loser and he decides to not even release it. The point being that one can’t predict what will catch the fancy of the public.

  3. I think it’s in the new “Love” album liner notes where one of the Beatles (John?) comments that when they came over to America, they were keen to rush to the “re-KORD shoppes” and check out all the latest tunes, but of course, the unanticipated mob scene scratched that off there itinerary stat!

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