Donegan the First
A couple weeks ago, I posted this wonderful, moving video here from the British version of The Voice. It was when judge Tom Jones was the only chair to turn around for the singer Peter Donegan -- who was the son of the late-legend Lonnie Donegan...who Tom Jones not only had toured with, but who wrote one of Jones's big hits, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again." And then Jones and Peter Donegan sang an impromptu great rendition of that song. If you haven't seen the video, it's highly worth it.
Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to post a video or two of Lonnie Donegan. And in tracking them down, found four that I thought especially good. I'll post a couple today, and hold the other two (one of which is a special treat) for the moment.
Lonnie Donegan's career lasted into the early 2000s, though he was at his height in the '50s and early '60s, an early influential rocker, though he who also had hits with American folk songs and even some novelty songs, one of which was a hit in the U.S. -- "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor (on the Bedpost over Night?") He appeared on a few TV shows in the U.S., most notably The Perry Como Show. How big was Lonnie Donegan? He had a remarkable 34 UK hits in just a six year period, from 1956-1962. And even had his own television series in England, Putting on the Donegan. Also, the "influential" tag is not hyperbole -- on a This is Your Life broadcast, singers like Roger Daltry, David Essex, Justin Hayward ("Nights of White Satin") and others appeared to pay tribute to him. ("When I saw Elvis Presley, I wanted to be a rocker," Daltry says on the show, "but when I saw Lonnie Donegan, I wanted to be a singer. I'd never seen anyone so wrapped up in what he was doing. It was a ball of energy, those was no stopping him. It was fantastic.") Further, in 1978 he recorded an album of his early hits, called Putting on the Style, that featured singers who were influenced by him, including Elton John and Ringo Star.
Donegan had a style known as "skiffle," and was known as the King of Skiffle. I think he has a sound that overlaps a bit like Roy Orbison. This first song is the highly energetic "Cumberland Gap," done on his TV show.
And to add to his bona fides, here is on New Year's Eve, 1999 singing a duet of "Sloop John B" with Van Morrison.
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