In 1949, he was drafted into the British Army. 2019, Pop - Released by All I Have To Do Is Dream on 15 nov. 2019, Pop - Released by Sanctuary Records on 8 sep. 2014, Country - Released by Black Marlin Records on 29 nov. 2014, Country - Released by Black Sheep Music on 4 jan. 2012, Jazz - Released by Hallmark on 5 mrt. b/w Jimmie Brown The Newsboy, Lively b/w Black Cat (Cross My Path Today), (Bury Me) Beneath The Willow b/w Leave My Woman Alone, I'll Never Fall In Love Again b/w Keep On The Sunny Side, Beans In My Ears b/w It's A Long Road To Travel, World Cup Willie b/w Where In This World Are We Going, My Lovely Juanita b/w Who Knows Where The Time Goes. Albums include Lonnie Donegan Showcase, Rock Island Line / John Henry, and The Skiffle Sessions: Live in Belfast. Another compelling glimpse of the group can be found in the British jukebox movie The Six-Five Special (1957), based on the popular television series of the period, in which Donegan rips through a killer live rendition of "Jack 'O Diamonds," as well as a fine cover of Woody Guthrie's "The Grand Coulee Dam." By the spring of 1955, he was signed to Pye Records, and his single, "Lost John," hit number two in England, although it never hit in America. He continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962, before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music. This is a preliminary attempt at a chronological discography. Donegan cut his first album, Showcase, in the summer of 1956, featuring songs by bluesmen Leadbelly and Leroy Carr, not to mention moody traditional blues like "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and A.P. Lonnie made his chart debut in January 1956 with Rock Island Line. They were successful enough that the National Jazz Federation asked the band to play a show at Festival Hall with American ragtime pianist Ralph Sutton and blues/jazz legend Lonnie Johnson. Donegan heard it all, even -- by his own admission -- stole a couple, and absorbed every note. It was during these shows, between sets by the full band, that Donegan would come on-stage with two other players and perform his own version of American blues, country, and folk standards, punched up with his own rhythms and accents, on acoustic guitar or banjo, backed by upright bass and drums. WebLonnie Donegan Showcase More images Tracklist Wabash Cannonball How Long, How Long Blues Nobody's Child I Shall Not Be Moved I'm Alabammy Bound I'm A Ramblin' Man While Donegan was racking up hits -- "Bring a Little Water, Sylvie" (number seven), "Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-O" (number four), "Cumberland Gap (number six), and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On the Bedpost Overnight?" The next month he was at Abbey Road Studios in London cutting a song for EMI's Columbia label. Putting On The Style They found the record's rhythm to be infectious and its sound alluring in a way that no record by anyone from England ever had before. With three Number 1s (Cumberland WebLonnie Donegan Discography 1954 - 1961 Adapted from 'The Skiffle Craze' by Mike Dewe ~ Planet Books www.hillmanweb.com/rock/donegan/02.html New Orleans Joys - 1954 Decca (with The Chris Barber Jazz Band) July 13, 1954: London Lonnie Donegan (gtr, voc. Diggin My Potatoes / Bury My Body (1956) . Before the smoke cleared, "Rock Island Line" also managed to reach the Top 20 in America, a major feat for a British artist at that time. There's also one fine Chris Barber/Lonnie Donegan original, "Harmonica Blues," dating from 1955 and never before issued. Donegan's attempt at a recording comeback late in the '60s was unsuccessful, but in 1974, a new boomlet for skiffle music in Germany brought him on tour and into the studio anew, and the following year he and Chris Barber toured together and recorded a new long-player, The Great Re-Union Album. New artists, most notably Tommy Steele and, later, Cliff Richard, started out playing skiffle music and put their own stamp on the material before moving on to other sounds. Boll Weevil Blues unissued LD9 April 12, 1953 Hotel Gentofte, Copenhagen, Denmark (Donegan & Barber) Hard Time Blues (KC 9) Storyville 28, 1957) The man extending the invitation was Chris Barber, himself an aspiring young jazzman. The name stuck. He began playing guitar around London, and going to the small jazz clubs springing up around the city. Suddenly, his manager was getting offers of $1500 a week for concert appearances in cities from Cleveland to New York -- that in a day when $800 was a year's wage in England to people of Donegan's generation. His stint in this group was interrupted, however, when he was called up for National Service in 1949. The Chris Barber Jazz Band had not played before 60,000 people in their whole history, and a phenomenon was obviously afoot. The LP was a hit, securing sales in the hundreds of thousands. Me and Bobby McGee 9. Donegan and his band eventually hooked back up with his old friend Chris Barber, who'd kept his band going throughout the previous two years, and eventually Barber and Donegan linked up with fellow jazzman Ken Colyer, into a kind of supergroup led by Colyer. The popular 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. The only way Donegan had of mastering his instrument was by listening to old records and painstakingly working out the music and a technique, © Bruce Eder /TiVo, 198 album(s) Walton-on-Thames Film Studios, Surrey (J.Currie, gtr), August 28, 1957 British Legion Hall, Plymouth, Devon. Three years later he was the resident lead guitarist on producer Jack Goods groundbreaking TV show Boy Meets Girls. Another compelling glimpse of the group can be found in the British jukebox movie The Six-Five Special (1957), based on the popular television series of the period, in which Donegan rips through a killer live rendition of "Jack 'O Diamonds," as well as a fine cover of Woody Guthrie's "The Grand Coulee Dam." Donegan's attempt at a recording comeback late in the '60s was unsuccessful, but in 1974, a new boomlet for skiffle music in Germany brought him on tour and into the studio anew, and the following year he and Chris Barber toured together and recorded a new long-player, The Great Re-Union Album. Sally Don't You Grieve (Nov - 1957) In 1978, however, he was back in the studio, recording the album that was his first chart entry in 15 years, Putting on the Style, an all-star skiffle-style album that teamed Donegan with Ringo Starr, Elton John, Brian May, Peter Banks, and other stars and superstars of rock who owed their entry into music to "Rock Island Line." I'm Alabamy Bound Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevitt's skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett - later Steve Jones - on upright bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby and Mark Goodwin - on drums or percussion and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead. Tom Dooley, Lonnie Donegan Hit Parade -- Vol 8 They found the record's rhythm to be infectious and its sound alluring in a way that no record by anyone from England ever had before. Singles. The record was a hit, racking up sales in the hundreds of thousands. Smith&Co SSCD1172 LD9. Note: The details on the right-hand side refer to the CD in the Bear Family 8-CD set More Than Pye in the Sky and also to other items in my own collection. Nobody's Child Yes Suh Smith&Co SSCD1123 LD9. The family, which moved to East London in 1933, had no desire to see him go into a dead-end profession. In six months, "Rock Island Line" sold three million copies, 50 times the initial sales of the album it came from, an extraordinary figure in anyone's accounting. Please enable Donegan's attempt at a recording comeback late in the '60s was unsuccessful, but in 1974, a new boomlet for skiffle music in Germany brought him on tour and into the studio anew, and the following year he and Chris Barber toured together and recorded a new long-player, The Great Re-Union Album. Bob Watson - Vocals 1955, Lonnie Donegan - Guitars, Vocals, Banjo Read Full Biography Overview Biography Dick Bishop - Guitars, Vocals 1955 His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954. 2023 XANDRIE SA - 45 rue de Delizy, 93692 Pantin CEDEX, France. As "Rock Island Line" took the country by storm, Decca suddenly had one of the bigger -- and most wholly unexpected -- hits in its history up to that time. The family, which moved to East London in 1933, had no desire to see him go into a dead-end profession. By the spring of 1955, he was signed to Pye Records, and his single, "Lost John," hit number two in England, although it never hit in America. Donegan went on to make a series of popular records with successes including "Cumberland Gap" and, particularly "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)", his only hit song in the U.S., released on Dot. http://www.p.griggsy.btinternet.co.uk/Untitled/Lonnie.html (Memories of Lonnie Donegan by Paul Griggs). Light From The Lighthouse. Donegan received no encouragement to play an instrument or choose music as a profession, for his father, like many talented musicians during the economic slump of the '30s, was continually out of work. It was catchy, earthy, even bluesy (after a fashion) American music played in a way that the British kids could master without an enormous amount of trouble -- a guitar or two, and maybe a banjo, an upright bass (or even one made from a washtub or tea chest, a broom handle, and a piece of rope), and a washboard-and-thimble for percussion. Donegan was a pivotal figure in the British Invasion due to his influence in the US in the late 1950s. Donegan proved to be a popular performer in America, playing on bills with Chuck Berry, among others. www.hillmanweb.com/book/gigs, Rock Island Line b/w John Henry (with The Chris Barber Jazz Band), Midnight Special b/w New Burying Ground (with The Chris Barber Jazz Band), Diggin' My Potatoes b/w I Don't Care Where They Bury My Body, Bring A Little Water, Sylvie b/w Dead Or Alive, Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O b/w I'm Alabammy Bound, On A Christmas Day b/w Take My Hand Precious Lord, My Dixie Darling b/w I'm Just A Rolling Stone, The Grand Coolie Dam b/w Nobody Loves Like An Irishman, Sally Don't You Grieve b/w Betty Betty Betty, Lonesome Traveller b/w Times Are Getting Hard Boys, Lonnie's Skiffle Pt. To look at Lonnie Donegan today, in pictures taken 40 years ago when he was topping the British charts and hitting the Top Ten in America, dressed in a suit, his hair cut short and strumming an acoustic guitar, he looks like a musical non-entity. Carter's "Wabash Cannonball." His bluff didn't work but the mix of personalities did, and he was in Barber's first band. Lonnie Donegans Golden Hour Of Golden Hits, Lonnie Donegans Golden Hour Of Golden Hits Vol. It was through BBC broadcasts around 1946 that Donegan first started learning to play songs like "Frankie and Johnny," "Putting on the Style," and "House of the Rising Sun." Among those he worked with during this period was future Moody Blues guitarist-singer Justin Hayward. Putting On The Style The Chris Barber Jazz Band had not played before 60,000 people in their whole history, and a phenomenon was obviously afoot. He got something more valuable from it than money, however, for "Rock Island Line" was credited to "The Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group." By 1980, he was making regular concert appearances again, and a new album with Barber followed. It was exceptionally popular among England's teenagers, who accounted for most of its sales. It seemed to fit, and it caught on; the Ken Colyer Jazzmen became almost as popular for Donegan's between-set skiffle songs as they were for their Dixieland music. WebIt was over half a century ago in 1958, as Lonnie Donegan was ruling the charts with Rock Island Line, that Joe joined his first band, the Spacemen Skiffle Group, at the age of 17. After his release from the army in 1951, he found a new source of blues and folk music in London, in the library at the American Embassy, which allowed visitors to listen to any recordings that were on hand. What's more, his music, like that of Presley and Haley, was vital to the early musical careers and future histories of the Beatles, the Stones, and hundreds of other groups. While Donegan was racking up hits -- "Bring a Little Water, Sylvie" (number seven), "Don't You Rock Me, Daddy-O" (number four), "Cumberland Gap (number six), and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On the Bedpost Overnight?" The three laid down four or five songs while the producer was away, and one of the songs chosen from among those five for the album was "Rock Island Line." Gamblin' Man It was exceptionally popular among England's teenagers, who accounted for most of its sales. Lonnie Donegan | Discography | Discogs http://lonniedonegan.webs.com/pagelinkindex.htm,