Hop, Skiffle and Jump have put together this CD featuring some of the most popular songs from that period. We hope you’ll enjoy it!
The Tracks
Worried Man Blues (trad)
We believe this folk song was first recorded by the Carter Family in 1930 but has since been recorded by many, many more artists. It was staple of the skiffle repertoire of the Fifties.
Don’t You Rock Me Daddy-O (Whyton)
Although credited to Wally Whyton of The Vipers Skiffle Group as the songwriter, this song was based on a sea shanty called ‘Sail Away Ladies’. Legend has it that Lonnie Donegan heard The Vipers sing it in the 2i’s Coffee Bar and intended to record and copyright it himself, prompting Whyton to dash to Denmark Street, (Tin Pan Alley), and get it published by the Benson Music Co.
Pick a Bale of Cotton (trad)
Another well-known folk song, or spiritual, recorded by many artists. In the spirit of those heady, energetic and enthusiastic skifflers of the Fifties we’ve tried to speed up the track as it progresses…before going for a good sit down!
Listen to a sample:
Rock Island Line (trad)
This song is worth a book in its own right, so interesting is its background. First recorded in 1934 by American folklorist John Lomax on Cumins State Prison Farm, it was sung by convict Kelly Pace. Lead Belly took it and adapted it in the Forties then Lonnie Donegan found it and made it his own in 1954, playing with the Chris Barber Jazz Band. Its release as a single in 1955 probably did as much as any other thing to spark off the skiffle craze!
Freight Train (Cotten)
Elizabeth Cotten composed this as a teenager in the early part of the 20th Century. It re-emerged as a hit in 1957 for Chas McDevitt and Nancy Whiskey, getting to number 5 in the charts. There were some shenanigans about who got the song-writing royalties at the time but all was resolved with the intervention of American folk singing family, the Seegers, for whom Elizabeth had been a nanny.
Listen to a sample:
Railroad, Steamboat, River and Canal (Reeves)
Jim Reeves gets the songwriting credits for this and recorded it as ‘Yonder Comes a Sucker’. Ian leads on this one and sings it very much in the skiffle style of The Vipers.
Michael Row the Boat Ashore (trad)
This African-American spiritual was first noted during the American Civil War. It reached number one in the States in 1960 recorded by The Highwaymen, but had long been a favourite of the skiffle groups of the UK for years before that. This one never fails to get our audiences singing…harmonies too!
Listen to a sample:
The Battle of New Orleans (Driftwood)
Who would have believed that the ignominious defeat of crack British troops at the hands of a small force of American soldiers would be a major hit for both Johnny Duncan and Lonnie Donegan? It goes to show what the power of a damn good melody can do, this one being from an American fiddle tune called ‘The 8th of January’.
Cumberland Gap (trad)
This started life as an Appalachian folk song but was recorded, in a pretty frenetic manner, by Lonnie Donegan in 1957. It topped the charts for 5 weeks. Lex does a pretty mean copy of the Denny Wright guitar riffs on this.
Rock Around the Clock (Freedman)
Not a skiffle song but we’ve included our version of it because it was such an influential record for youngsters in the Fifties, inspiring many to get involved in music of their own and not their parents’ generation. Lex recreates the Danny Cedrone guitar solo, considered to be one of the greatest rock and roll guitar solos of all time.
Listen to a sample:
Tom Dooley (trad)
A North Carolina folk song about the murder of Laura Foster in 1866, and the subsequent hanging of the murderer, became a hit in this country for Lonnie Donegan and also The Kingston Trio in 1958. The power of a good tune!
Hard Travelin’ (Guthrie)
Woody Guthrie was a source of material for many skiffle bands in the Fifties. Of this song Guthrie said, “This is a song about the hard traveling of the working people, not the moonstruck mystic traveling of the professional vacationist.”
There’s a Blue Ridge ’Round My Heart, Virginia (Schuster, Phillips, Bryan)
As a skiffle song this breaks all the rules! Loads of chords, no chorus, slow and relaxed…how did that get to be a skiffle hit? The answer is that highly respected saxophonist and singer Betty Smith released it in the midst of the skiffle boom and temporarily renamed her band ‘Betty Smith’s Skiffle’ to latch onto the sales the ‘skiffle’ tag would afford.
Mama Don’t Allow (Davenport)
A jazz song from the 1920’s which became a firm favourite of skifflers in the 1950’s. It’s our finishing song when playing gigs and has been known to last for 20 minutes!
Listen to a sample:
