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Lonnie Donegan
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Lonnie Donegan, born Anthony James Donegan in Glasgow in 1931, was the British singer and guitarist who became known as the King of Skiffle. With his hits he inspired thousands of British teenagers in the second half of the 1950s to start a band of their own, among them the future Beatles.
Music and breakthrough
Donegan began in British trad jazz, as a banjo player with Ken Colyer and then in the band of the trombonist Chris Barber. In the intervals of the concerts he played American folk and blues numbers with two band members, with guitar, washboard and bass: the skiffle break. In July 1954 Donegan recorded Rock Island Line in this way, a song about a railway line that he knew from the blues musician Lead Belly. Barber played double bass, Beryl Bryden washboard. Donegan sang it at a fast tempo. At the end of 1955 the song was released as a single on Decca. In early 1956 it became a top 10 hit in England and also entered the American top 10. It was the first British debut record to go gold. Dozens of hits followed, including the number 1 hits Gamblin' Man (1957) and My Old Man's a Dustman (1960).
Influence
Skiffle demanded little: a cheap guitar, a washboard and a bass made from a tea chest. That made it the do-it-yourself music of the 1950s. John Lennon started the skiffle band The Quarrymen in Liverpool, and Paul McCartney and George Harrison later named Donegan as an early influence. Through skiffle, British youngsters got to know American blues and folk, the music they sold back to America in the 1960s in the British Invasion.
Listening
Rock Island Line · Lonnie Donegan, 1955Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1956Showcase
- 1959Lonnie Donegan
- 1960Skiffle Folk Music
- 1965The Folk Album
- 1973Chris Barber & Lonnie Donegan
- 1990A Golden Hour Of
- 1999Muleskinner Blues
- 2000Lonnie Rides Again...Plus
- 2000Sing Hallelujah...Plus
- ?Rock My Soul
- ?The Originals
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 2: Youth Cultures 1950-1980NL Reader
- Mixtape 3: The BeatlesNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Skiffle Genre
In the mid-1950s, skiffle swept through Britain as a craze, with roots in American folk and blues; Lonnie Donegan had a hit with Rock Island Line in 1956.