Lonnie Donegan

Lonnie Donegan was one of the most popular musicians in the United Kingdom in the era immediately before the advent of the Beatles.  He was a practitioner of "skiffle" music, which combined American folk songs with a rock n'roll beat and instrumentation (but it was not what later became known as "folk rock"). In some ways Donegan set the stage for the Beatles, who began as a skiffle-influenced band called The Quarrymen before they expanded their repertoire to American R & B.

In addition to songs adapted from Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, country music, and gospel, Donegan also performed novelty numbers, more or less in the British music hall tradition, a couple of which are at the end of this post.

Wreck of the Old 97

The Grand Coulee Dam

The Battle of New Orleans (improbably celebrating the defeat of "the blooming British") 

Rock Island Line 

Rock My Soul 

His only American hit was a novelty number (audio only), Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (or Flavour in the U.K.) 

 And in music hall style, My Old Man's a Dustman. It reached number one in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Canada -- but it did not chart in the U.S.

 Puttin' on the Style 

 

Comments

[Enrique Guerra Pujol (priorprobability.com)]

Old School Cool!

[Jeffrey Harrison]

Didn't his chewing gum lose its flavor on the bed post overnight or was that some other singer?

[Steven Lubet]

He asked the question "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor" in his only U.S. hit, but he never answered it. It's the sixth clip in this post.