It was written, though, by a black blues singer, Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly.īack in the 1930s, the American song collectors John Lomax and his son, Alan, had recorded Lead Belly singing the song in Angola prison, Louisiana, where the blues musician was serving time for attempted murder. Donegan had assumed ownership of the song by simply claiming the British copyright, which was unregistered and considered to be in the public domain. The rest, as they say, is history.īoth Lennon and McCartney would have assumed that "Rock Island Line" was a Lonnie Donegan original, not least because it was credited to him on the record label and the song's sheet music. On 6 July that same year, the 15-year-old Paul McCartney, another Donegan fan, attended a church fete in Woolton village to hear the Quarrymen play. Donegan was a huge influence on the young John Lennon, who formed his own skiffle group, the Quarrymen, in 1956. I n 1955, "Rock Island Line" was a chart hit in Britain and America for Lonnie Donegan, the biggest star of the short-lived skiffle boom.
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