Donegan, Lonnie (actually, Anthony James)

Donegan, Lonnie (actually, Anthony James), Scottish pop singer, guitarist, and banjoist; b. Glasgow, April 29, 1931. Donegan’s popularizing of skiffle music—a British hybrid of American folk, blues, country, and jazz that was exemplified in his signature hit, “Rock Island Line/7 influenced a generation of British musicians to take up guitars, helping to lead to the wave of internationally successful British rock groups of the 1960s. In the U.K. he was a major star of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He had dozens of chart records, most of them, like “Rock Island Line”—adaptations of American folk music.

Donegan was the son of a violinist with the National Scottish Orch. He began playing drums at 13 and guitar at 17. At 18 he was drafted into the army for two years, playing drums in a jazz band and learning banjo during his service. Upon his discharge in 1951 he moved to London and joined a jazz band led by Ken Colyer as guitarist/banjoist; his specialty within the group was to play and sing American folk and blues material. In 1952 he adopted the first name “Lonnie” in tribute to American blues performer Lonnie Johnson.

Many of Colyer’s backup musicians, including Donegan, split from him in January 1954 and formed the Chris Barber Jazz Band. The group signed to Decca Records and in 1955 recorded the album New Orleans Joys, on which Donegan sang “Rock Island Line,” learned from a Lead Belly record. Decca released a single of the song under Donegan’s name, and it entered the charts in January 1956, peaking in the Top Ten the following month. Surprisingly, the record also succeeded in the U.S., peaking in the Top Ten in April. Donegan signed a solo recording contract with Pye Nixa Records and toured Britain and the U.S.

Donegan’s next single, “Lost John”/”Stewball,” reached the charts briefly in the U.S., but in the U.K. it was another Top Ten hit in June. Skiffle became a national craze, with thousands of young people taking up stringed instruments, among them the future members of The Beatles. Donegan had a third British Top Ten single in September with “Bring a Little Water Sylvie”/”Dead or Alive.” He was even more successful in 1957, scoring four Top Ten records, among them the chart-toppers “Cumberland Gap” and “Gamblin’ Man”/”Putting on the Style.”

Donegan’s five chart entries in 1958 included Top Ten renditions of Woody Guthrie’s “Grand Coolie Dam” and his version of The Kingston Trio’s “Tom Dooley.” Another five chart entries in 1959 included Top Tens with the novelty “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour on the Bedpost Over Night?” (an adaptation of the 1924 song “Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Over Night?”; music by Ernest Breuer, lyrics by Billy Rose and Marty Bloom) and “Battle of New Orleans” (music and lyrics by Jimmy Driftwood), an American hit for Johnny Horton. (Released in the U.S., “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour on the Bedpost Over Night?” suddenly caught on two years later, reaching the American Top Ten in September 1961.)

Donegan topped the British charts in March 1960 with the comic song “My Old Man’s a Dustman,” the first of another five chart entries that year. He continued to reach the charts in 1961 and 1962, but his string of hits ended with the onset of The Beatles and the rock groups that followed. Nevertheless, Donegan had established himself as a cabaret entertainer, and he was able to perform successfully in Britain and the U.S. from then on.

Donegan returned to the British charts in February 1978 with the album Putting on the Style, on which he rerecorded his hits with an all-star backing band consisting of well-known rock musicians he had influenced, among them Elton John, Ringo Starr of The Beatles, and Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones. Despite a series of heart attacks, he continued to perform during the 1990s.

—William Ruhlmann