The Quarrymen Saluting John Lennon

Paul McCartney on Meeting John Lennon For the First Time

"John was onstage with the Quarry Men singing 'Come little darlin', come and go with me,' but he didn't know the proper words, so he just started making them up, like 'Down, down, down, down to the penitentiary.' I remember I was impressed, and I thought, They're good. That's a great band. I met them in the church hall later and I sang a few songs to them, and John was impressed because he didn't know that many. He played some songs to me and we had some fun, but the other thing I remember is that he smelled a bit drunk."

John Lennon on Meeting Paul McCartney at the Woolton Fete

"Paul met me the first day I did Gene Vincent's 'Be Bop a Lula' live onstage. Ivan Vaughan, a mutual friend of both of us, brought him to see my group, the Quarry Men. We met and we talked after the show. He was playing guitar backstage and doing 'Twenty Flight Rock' by Eddie Cochran, and I saw he had talent. After talking about all the music and artists we liked, I turned 'round, and right there at this first meeting I asked, 'Do you want to join our group?' And he looked down at his feet for a minute or so and said, 'Um, um, ah, yeah!'"

Pete Shotton on the Day John Lennon Met Paul McCartney

"His name was Paul McCartney. We spent twenty minutes talking to him, and at first it was very reserved because John was a bit careful about meeting new people. He liked to suss them out first. He never liked to make the first move. People always had to come to him. Eventually Paul came to him by getting out his guitar and playing, I think, 'Twenty Flight Rock' by Eddie Cochran, and it was good! So, as I say, we chatted for about twenty minutes and then we split up and John and I walked home together. While we were walking, John asked me, 'What do you think of him then?' And I said, 'I think he's okay. I like him.' And John said, 'Well, should we ask him to join the band then?' And I said, 'Yeah, it's okay by me if it's okay by you.' So that was that."

Len Garry on the John Lennon / Paul McCartney Rivalry

"As I say, there was a fear that he [McCartney] could oust Lennon. I mean, that was the fear to start with. Of course, it didn't work out like that. They gelled, didn't they?"

John Lennon on the Skiffle Craze and Forming the Quarry Men

"It was just before the time rock and roll started getting big in Britain. I think I was around 15, so it would be 1955. Everyone was crazy about skiffle, which was a kind of American folk music, and it sort of went like ging ging-e-ging, ging ging-a-ging, using washboards. And all the kids who were 15 and 16 used to have these groups, and so I formed one at school."

Lonnie Donegan

Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is also known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s.

Early life and trad jazz

Born as Anthony James Donegan in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra, he moved with his mother to East Ham, when he was six years old, after his parents' divorce.

Donegan attended St Ambrose College, initially at the school's original site in Dunham Road, Altrincham.

His father was unemployed in the 1930s, and in 1933 the family moved to East Ham, then in Essex but since 1965 part of East London. Lonnie Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape The Blitz. In the early 1940s he mostly listened to Swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar. Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest and he bought his first guitar at the age of fourteen, around 1945. From listening to BBC radio broadcasts in the following years he began learning songs such as "Frankie and Johnny," "Puttin' On the Style," and "The House of the Rising Sun." By the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.

The first band he played in was the trad jazz band led by Chris Barber, who approached him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his band. Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and tried to bluff his way through the audition. More on personality than playing, he was brought into Barber's band. His stint with the band was interrupted when he was called up for National Service in 1949, but his military service in Vienna gave him contact with American troops, and access to records as well as the opportunity to listen to the American Forces Network radio station.

In 1952 he formed his first group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall. Donegan was a big fan of Johnson, and took his first name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and "Lonnie Donegan," and Donegan was happy to keep the name.

In 1953 cornetist Ken Colyer, enjoying hero status for having spent time in a New Orleans jail (due to a visa problem), returned to England and, when invited to play with Chris Barber's band, became the moving figure in it, more or less taking it over and running it as if it were his own creation. It actually was very much a cooperative. With the new name, Ken Colyer's Jazzmen, the group, with Donegan, made its initial public appearance on 11 April 1953 in Copenhagen. The following day, Chris Albertson recorded the group (as well as a Monty Sunshine Trio, with Donegan and Barber) for Storyville Records. These were Lonnie Donegan's first commercially released recordings.

Skiffle

Donegan was the first person to become famous playing skiffle in the United Kingdom, and went on to have a novelty hit in Britain and America with "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour", released in 1959 and 1961 respectively.

While playing in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played both guitar and banjo as part of their Dixieland jazz, and also began playing with two other band members during the intervals to provide what was called on their posters a "skiffle" break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother Bill after recalling the Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930s. In 1954 Colyer left, and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band.

With a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan had a lot of fun entertaining audiences with folk songs and blues by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, casually giving the impression that anyone could do it. This proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line," featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side. It was an enormous hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full LP album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 60s) but ironically, because it was a band recording, Lonnie made no money from it beyond his original session fee. It was the first debut record to go gold in Britain, and reached the top ten in the United States, and Donegan has suggested that it might have influenced the beginnings of white rock and roll, and certainly was an influence of a hybrid version of American country-rock later called rockabilly.

The skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one of the many skiffle groups that followed was The Quarry Men formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Putting On The Style" / "Gamblin' Man" single was number one on the British charts in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.

After splitting from Barber, Donegan went on to make a series of popular records as "Lonnie Donegan's Skiffle Group," with successes including "Cumberland Gap" and, particularly "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour," his only hit song in America, released on Dot Records. He turned to a music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" which was not well received by skiffle fans, or in an attempted but ultimately unsuccessful American release by Atlantic Records in 1960, but reached number one in the UK singles charts. Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevvit's skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Pete Huggett on upright bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby - on drums or percussion and Lonnie playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead. Despite appearances that the style was simple and somewhat 'unpolished', all were accomplished and highly talented musicians.

Later career

Donegan was unfashionable and generally ignored through the late 1960s and 1970s (although he wrote "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for Tom Jones in 1969), and he began to play on the American cabaret circuit. There was a reunion concert with the original Chris Barber band in Croydon in June 1975 - notable for a bomb scare, meaning that the recording had to be finished in the studio, though patrons were treated to an impromptu concert in the car park.

He suffered his first heart attack in 1976 while in the United States. Donegan underwent quadruple bypass surgery. He returned to the public's attention in 1978, when he made a record of his early songs with such figures as Ringo Starr, Elton John and Brian May called Putting on the Style. In 1992 Donegan underwent further bypass surgery following another heart attack.

Then in 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years, with a long tour with both bands, rather than just a concert. Pat Halcox was still on trumpet (a position he retains as of 2006). The reunion concert and the tour, were recorded on CD, and also on video (and later released on DVD, though the quality isn't up to digital standard). As is Chris Barber's normal style, he generously featured Lonnie in the concerts and the whole original band were much more relaxed than in 1954, making these real collectors' items as the stereo was real and not electronically created.

He experienced another late renaissance when in 2000 he appeared on Van Morrison's album The Skiffle Sessions - Live In Belfast 1998, a critically acclaimed album featuring Donegan sharing vocals with Van Morrison and also featuring Chris Barber, with a guest appearance by Dr John. He also played at the Glastonbury Festival, and was awarded the MBE in 2000.

His last CD was This Y'ere the Story, which tells his story - complete with the inaccuracies as to his introduction to the banjo and the Barber band as related above.

Donegan's influence on the generation of musicians that followed him is unquestioned. He inspired both John Lennon and Pete Townshend to learn to play the guitar, and was responsible for hundreds of other skiffle groups being formed. One of them, The Quarrymen, later evolved into The Beatles.

Family

Lonnie married three times. He had two daughters by his first wife, Maureen Tyler (divorced 1962), a son and a daughter by his second wife, Jill Westlake (divorced 1971), and three sons by his third wife, Sharon, whom he married in 1977.

Death

Lonnie Donegan died in 2002, aged 71, after suffering a heart attack in Peterborough mid-way through a UK tour and shortly before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison with The Rolling Stones. He had suffered from cardiac problems since the 1970s and had several heart attacks in his last years.

Legacy

Musician Mark Knopfler released a tribute song to Lonnie Donegan called "Donegan's Gone" on his 2004 album Shangri-La and said that he was one of his greatest musical influences. Donegan's music formed the basis for a musical starring his two sons. Lonnie D - The Musical took its name from the Chas & Dave tribute song which starts the show. Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a new band that performs his father's material. Lonnies eldest son Anthony also formed his own band under the name Lonnie Donegan Jnr.

On his album "A Beach Full of Shells," Al Stewart pays tribute to Donegan in the song "Katherine of Oregon." Additionally, in the song "Class of '58," he describes a seminal British entertainer who is either Donegan or a composite including him.

Quotations

* "In England, we were separated from our folk music tradition centuries ago and were imbued with the idea that music was for the upper classes. You had to be very clever to play music. When I came along with the old three chords, people began to think that if I could do it, so could they. It was the reintroduction of the folk music bridge which did that." — Interview, 2002.
* "He was the first person we had heard of from Britain to get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts, and we studied his records avidly. We all bought guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the man." — Paul McCartney
* "He really was at the very cornerstone of English blues and rock." — Brian May.

Discography

* Rock Island Line/ John Henry (1955)
* Diggin' My Potatoes/ Bury My Body (1956)
* On A Christmas Day/ Take My Hand Precious Lord (1956)
* Lonnie Donegan Showcase (December 1956)
* Jack O'Diamonds/ Ham 'N' Eggs (1957)
* My Dixie Darlin’/I’m Just A Rolling Stone (1957)
* Lonnie (November 1957)
* The Grand Coulee Dam/ Nobody Loves Like An Irishman (1958)
* Midnight Special/ When The Sun Goes Down (1958)
* Sally Don't You Grieve/ Betty Betty Betty (1958)
* Lonesome Traveller/ Times Are Getting Hard Boys (1958)
* Lonnie's Skiffle Party Pt.1/ Pt.2 (1958)
* Tom Dooley/ Rock O' My Soul (1958)
* Tops with Lonnie (September 1958)
* Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour/ Aunt Rhody (1959)
* Fort Worth Jail/ Whoa Buck (1959)
* Fort Bewildered/ Kevin Barry / It Is No Secret / My Lagan Love Buck (1959)
* Battle Of New Orleans/ Darling Corey (1959)
* Sal's Got A Sugar Lip/ Chesapeake Bay (1959)
* San Miguel/ Talking Guitar Blues (1959)
* Lonnie Rides Again (May 1959)
* My Old Man's A Dustman/ The Golden Vanity (1960)
* I Wanna Go Home (Wreck Of the John B.)/ Jimmy Brown The Newsboy (1960)
* Lorelei/ In All My Wildest Dreams (1960)
* Lively/ Black Cat (Cross My Path Today) (1960)
* Virgin Mary/ Beyond The Sunset (1960)
* (Bury Me) Beneath The Willow/ Leave My Woman Alone (1961)
* Have A Drink On Me/ Seven Daffodils (1961)
* Michael Row the Boat/ Lumbered (1961)
* The Comancheros/ Ramblin' Round (1961)
* Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor (On The Bedpost Over Night) (1961)
* More! Tops with Lonnie (April 1961)
* The Party's Over/ Over the Rainbow (1962)
* I'll Never Fall In Love Again/ Keep On The Sunny Side (1962)
* Pick A Bale Of Cotton/ Steal Away (1962)
* The Market Song/ Tit-Bits (1962)
* Sing Hallelujah (December 1962)
* Losing My Hair/ Trumpet Sounds (1963)
* It Was A Very Good Year/ Rise Up (1963)
* Lemon Tree/ I've Gotta Girl So Far (1963)
* 500 Miles Away From Home/ This Train (1963)
* Beans In My Ears/ It's A Long Road To Travel (1964)
* Fisherman's Luck/ There's A Big Wheel (1964)
* Get Out Of My Life/ Won't You Tell Me (1965)
* Louisiana Man/ Bound For Zion (1965)
* The Lonnie Donegan Folk Album (August 1965)
* World Cup Willie/ Where In This World Are We Going (1966)
* I Wanna Go Home/ Black Cat (Cross My Path Today) (1966)
* Aunt Maggie's Remedy/ (Ah) My Sweet Marie (1967)
* Toys/ Relax Your Mind (1968)
* My Lovely Juanita/ Who Knows Where the Time Goes (1969)
* Lonniepops--Lonnie Donegan Today (1970)
* Speak To The Sky / Get Out Of My Life (1972)
* Jump Down Turn Around (Pick a Bale of Cotton) / Lost John Blues (1973 - Australia only)
* Lonnie Donegan Meets Leinemann (1974)
* Country Roads (1976)
* Puttin' On The Style (February 1978)
* Sundown (May 1979)
* Muleskinner Blues (January 1999)
* The song Lost John was used to open the John Peel tribute album
* This Y'ere The Story (2000?)
* The Last Tour (2006)

Wikipedia

"Guitar Boogie"

"Guitar Boogie" is the name of a song written by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith. The Beatles (as the Quarry Men) covered the song in their live act from 1957 to 1959.

Arthur Smith (born April 1, 1921 in Clinton, South Carolina) is an American musician and songwriter.

Arthur Smith was a textile mill worker who became a celebrated and respected country music instrumental composer, guitarist, fiddler, and banjo player who had a major hit with the instrumental, "Guitar Boogie." The song earned him the moniker Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith (to differentiate him from Tennessee fiddler and 1930s Grand Ole Opry star Fiddlin' Arthur Smith) and would be recorded by numerous others including as a rock and roll hit by Frank Virtue and The Virtues renamed the "Guitar Boogie Shuffle." Virtue served in the Navy with Smith and counted him as a major influence. Other musicians who have been influenced by Smith include Nashville studio ace Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland, Roy Clark, Glen Campbell and surf music pioneers The Ventures.

Smith was the son of Clayton Seymour Smith, a textile worker and music teacher who also led the town band in Kershaw, South Carolina; Smith's first instrument was the cornet. Arthur Smith, along with his brothers Ralph and Sonny formed a Dixieland combo, the Carolina Crackerjacks, who appeared briefly on radio in Spartanburg, South Carolina; they had limited success with their jazz format, and became a more popular Country Music group before Arthur moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to join the cast of the WBT Carolina Barndance live show and radio program. Before WWII, he was an occasional member of the WBT Briarhoppers band.

After wartime service in the US Navy, Arthur returned to Charlotte; joined by his brothers, his wife Dorothy and vocalist Roy Lear, he continued his recording career and started his own radio show "Carolina Calling" on WBT. Arthur Smith emceed part of the first live television program broadcast in 1951 by the new television station, WBTV, in Charlotte. The Arthur Smith Show was also the first country music television show to be syndicated nationally, and ran for 32 years in 90 markets coast to coast. The band, now renamed Arthur Smith & His Crackerjacks, became an institution in the Southeast area through the new medium; their daily early-morning program, Carolina Calling, was carried on the CBS-TV network as a summer-replacement during the 1950s, increasing Smith's national visibility. The band was unusual for a Country Music band in that it relied on tight arrangements with written "charts" for most of their music.

In 1955, Arthur Smith composed a banjo instrumental he called "Feudin' Banjos" and recorded the song with five-string banjo player Don Reno. Later the composition appeared in the popular 1972 film Deliverance as "Dueling Banjos" played by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel. Not given credit, Smith had to proceed with legal action that eventually gave him songwriting credit and back royalties. It was a landmark copyright infringement suit.

As a composer, Arthur Smith has nearly 500 copyrights. Among his copyrights, Smith has over 100 active inspirational and/or gospel music compositions including million sellers "The Fourth Man" and "I Saw A Man." In total, his compositions have been recorded numerous times by artists including Chet Atkins, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, The Cathedrals, Al Hirt, Barbara Mandrell, Willie Nelson, The Gatlin Brothers, Oak Ridge Boys, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Boots Randolph, George Beverly Shea, The Stamps, The Statler Brothers, Ricky Van Shelton and many more.

Smith built and managed the first commercial recording studio in the Southeast in Charlotte; in addition to recording Smith, the Crackerjacks and its various members, such as vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Tommy Faile, it produced sides from many other acts, including rhythm and blues star James Brown, whose "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" was cut in Smith's studio. In this facility, Smith also created and produced nationally syndicated radio programs hosted by Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Richard Petty, James Brown, and George Beverly Shea. Billy Graham's "Hour of Decision" radio program was first produced in Smith's studio. Smith also produced and hosted his own radio program "Top of the Morning" which was syndicated for an unbroken span of 29 years.

With the advent of video-tape technology in the 1970s, Smith produced a weekly, thirty-minute program which was carried in over 90 TV markets at its peak. He produced radio and television shows for a number of other artists, including Johnny Cash, gospel singer George Beverly Shea, and was for many years associated with evangelist Billy Graham.

The Crackerjacks band employed a number of noted country musicians at various times, including Don Reno, fiddler Jim Buchanan (later with Jim & Jesse's Virginia Boys and Mel Tillis), banjoists David Deese, Carl Hunt and Jeff Whittington, resonator guitarist Ray Atkins (Johnny & Jack, Carl Story) and country singer George Hamilton IV. Other regular cast members included Wayne Haas, Don Ange, and Jackie Schuler, along with Ralph Smith and Tommy Faile.

Arthur Smith is now retired; his extensive publishing interests, production company, and management business are managed by his son, Clay Smith. The younger Smith, a noted recording artist, ran Johnny Cash's businesses in the late 1970s and returned to the family business in 1982. Clay Smith is also an award winning network television producer, and record producer following in Arthur Smith's footsteps. Arthur and Clay Smith have collaborated on 12 major motion picture soundtracks including "Black Sunday" "Death Driver" and "Living Legend." The father-son team received the Grand Prize-First Place Award for Original Music in the International Real Life Adventure Film Festival, Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy.

Arthur Smith celebrated career includes the following awards: BMI Song of the Year Award 1973; Grammy - Dueling Banjos (1973) (original writer); Council on International Nontheatrical Events - Golden Eagle Award (1980); The Gold Squirrel Award (Grand Prize – First Prize) Festival International Film & Adventura, Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy (1981); International Real Life Adventure Film Festival, 1st Place Award (1981); State of North Carolina Order of The Long Leaf Pine (1984); Southeast Tourism Society Award (1985); American Advertising Federation Silver Medal Award (1986); Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) Special Citation of Achievement (over 1 million broadcast performances of original compositions); The Broadcasters Hall of Fame – North Carolina Association of Broadcasters (1990); South Carolina Broadcasters Association (2006); South Carolina Hall of Fame (1998); North Carolina Folk Heritage Award (1998); North Carolina Award (2001); Legends Award – Western Film Festival 2003; Lifetime Achievement Award - South Carolina Broadcasters Association (2006); BMI Legendary Songwriter Award (2006).

Wikipedia

"Freight Train"

The Beatles covered "Freight Train" in their live act from 1957-1959, when they were known under various names. They undoubtedly learned it from the top 5 UK single of The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group (featuring Nancy Whiskey). Though the songwriting credit on the single was listed as "James/Williams," the song had been written by the American folk musician Elizabeth Cotten. Cotten wrote "Freight Train" at age 11 when she saw a train pass by her house on Lloyd Street in Carrboro, North Carolina.

"The Cumberland Gap"

"The Cumberland Gap" is a traditional song that was released by Lonnie Donegan as well as the Vipers Skiffle Group, who had a top 10 hit with it in the UK. The Quarry Men covered the number live from 1957 to 1959.

Cumberland Gap (el. 1600 ft./488 m.) is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, also known as the Cumberland Water Gap. Famous in American history for its role as the chief passageway through the central Appalachians, it was an important part of the Wilderness Road. Long used by Native Americans, the path was widened by a team of loggers led by Daniel Boone, making it accessible to pioneers, who used it to journey into the western frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee.

Location

Cumberland Gap is located just north of the spot where the current-day states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia meet. The nearby town of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee takes its name from the pass.

The gap was formed by an ancient creek, flowing southward, which cut through the land being pushed up to form the mountains. As the land rose even more, the creek reversed direction flowing into the Cumberland River to the north. The gap was used by Native Americans and migrating animal herds.

History

The gap was named for Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, who had many places named for him in the American colonies after the Battle of Culloden. The explorer Thomas Walker gave the name to the Cumberland River in 1750, and the name soon spread to many other features in the region, such as the Cumberland Gap.

In 1775, Daniel Boone, hired by the Transylvania Company, led a company of men to widen the path through the gap to make settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee easier. The trail was widened in the 1790s to accommodate wagon traffic.
Map showing Cumberland Gap in relation to the Wilderness Road route from Virginia to Kentucky

It is estimated that between 200,000 and 300,000 immigrants passed through the gap on their way into Kentucky and the Ohio Valley before 1810. Today 18,000 cars pass beneath the site daily, and 1,200,000 people visit the park on the site annually.

U.S. Route 25E passed overland through the gap before the completion of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel in 1996. The original trail was then restored.

Geological features

The 12-mile (19 km) long Cumberland Gap consists of four geologic features: the Yellow Creek valley, the natural gap in the Cumberland Mountain ridge, the eroded gap in the Pine Mountain, and Middlesboro crater.

Middlesboro crater is a 3-mile (4.8 km) diameter meteorite impact crater in which Middlesboro, Kentucky is located. The crater was identified in 1966 when Robert Dietz discovered shatter cones in sandstone, which led to the further identification of shocked quartz. Shatter cones, a rock shattering pattern naturally formed only during impact events, are found in abundance in the area. In September 2003 the site was designated a Distinguished Geologic Site by the Kentucky Society of Professional Geologists.

Without Middlesboro crater, it would have been difficult for packhorses to navigate this gap and improbable that wagon roads would have been constructed at an early date. Middlesboro is the only place in the world where coal is mined inside an impact crater. Special mining techniques must be used in the complicated strata of this crater. (Milam & Kuehn, 36).

Wikipedia

"Come Go with Me"

"Come Go with Me" is a song written by C. E. Quick (A.K.A Clarence Quick, an original member of the Del-Vikings). The song was originally recorded by the Del-Vikings in 1956. Released in April of 1957, it became a big-seller on Dot Records, reaching number four on the Billboard charts in the United States. The Del-Vikings' recording was featured in the films "American Graffiti" and "Stand by Me". The song was later covered by the American pop band The Beach Boys and was released on their 1978 album MIU Album. In January, 1982, the single became a top twenty hit, reaching number eighteen in the United States. In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked the doo wop-styled song #441 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song was part of the Quarry Men's live stage act from 1957 to 1959.

The song bears a noticeable resemblance to the 1954 hit "Oop Shoop" by (Shirley Gunter and) The Queens, especially in two crucial hooks: the end of the bridge melody and the backing vocal riff at the end of the choruses.

Trivia

When Paul McCartney saw John Lennon for the first time in 1957, Lennon was performing this song with his band the Quarry Men. According to McCartney's recollection in the Beatles Anthology, Lennon, who did not recall much of the song's lyrics, inserted lyrics from blues songs (including the line, "Down, down down to the penitentiary.")

The TV show Saved By The Bell also covered this song when Zack Morris and the gang performed this song at The Max, their local hangout.

In summer 2007 the Liverpool Echo released a one-off music magazine, Sound 08. Given away free was a CD containing The Coral covering the track.

Wikipedia

The Quarry-Men - The Dawn of Modern Rock

Label: Pilz 449830-2
Year: 1993

1. Hallelujah, I Love Her So (2:23)
2. The One After 909 (2:29)
3. I'll Always Be In Love With You (2:22)
4. You'll Always Be Mine (1:46)
5. Matchbox (1:02)
6. You Just Don't Understand (2:30)
7. Somedays (1:37)
8. Thinking Of Linking (instrumental) (2:32)
9. I'll Follow The Sun (1:49)
10. The One After 909 (1:32)
11. Hey Darling (3:23)
12. You Must Lie Everyday (2:34)
13. Guitar Bop (instrumental) (2:20)
14. That's When Your Heartaches Begin (1:19)
15. Hello Little Girl (1:55)
16. That'll Be The Day (0:45)

Historical Collectors Series
Limited Edition
Rehearsal Demo Recorded
April 1960

John, Paul, George and Stu - Liverpool May 1960

Label: FU207

1. I'll Follow The Sun (first version) (1:47)
2. Long Rambling Blues (7:30)
3. Blues & Roll Expectations (instrumental jam) (11:47)
4. Hallelujah, I Love Her So (2:32)
5. That's Not A Banjo, It's Blues Guitar (instrumental jam) (4:49)
6. Dreaming Old Mississippi Blues (instrumental jam, some vocal) (7:39)
7. Cold As Ice/Elvis' Nightmare (unreleased) (5:45)
8. Oh Pretty Darling (unreleased) (5:42)
9. One After 909 (first version) (2:21)
10. Brown-Eyed Handsome Man (instrumental jam) (3:43)
11. Screaming Guitar Blues (instrumental jam) (11:28)
12. Shuffle Boogie Blues (instrumental jam) (17:11)
13. Won't You Try (unreleased) (1:46)

Vintage home recordings of the pre-Silver Beatles
The very first tapes of the Beatles made at Paul's house
Liverpool 1960

George Harrison: Lead guitar
Paul McCartney: Rhythm guitar, lead vocal, mouth percussion
John Lennon: Rhythm guitar, vocal answers, some lead vocals
Stuart Sutcliffe: Bass guitar

The Quarrymen at Home

Label: GEMA947

1. Hallelujah (2:15)
2. One After 909 (2:21)
3. I'll Always Be With You (2:16)
4. You'll Be Mine (1:41)
5. Matchbox (0:57)
6. You Don't Understand (2:25)
7. Some Days (1:34)
8. Thinking Of Linking (2:23)
9. I'll Follow The Sun (1:42)
10. One After 909 (1:25)
11. Hey Darling (3:13)
12. You Must Lie Everyday (2:28)
13. The Guitar Bop (2:10)
14. When Your Heartaches Begin (1:13)
15. Hello, Little Girl (1:49)
16. That'll Be The Day (0:43)

Beatle People: John Duff Lowe

John Duff Lowe (born April 1942, in West Derby, Liverpool, Lancashire) was a pianist from the middle-late 1950s. He was invited to play piano with The Quarrymen by Paul McCartney in 1958.

Lowe was in the band for two years, and he was there when the Quarrymen went to Percy Phillips' home studio in Liverpool to record a couple of songs for a vanity disc. The two tracks cut that day were "That'll Be the Day" and "In Spite of All the Danger." Lowe maintained possession of the tracks and, in 1981, sold the recordings to Paul McCartney. Its estimated value was around 12,000 pounds. McCartney had the record remastered and they appeared on The Beatles Anthology 1.

In 1994, John Lowe played again with The Quarrymen for the album Open for Engagements. Of the 1994 lineup, only Rod Davis (guitar) also played for The Quarrymen in the 1950s.

Wikipedia

Beatle People: Nigel Whalley

Nigel Whalley (born Christopher Nigel Whalley, 30 June 1941, in Vale Road, Woolton, Liverpool, Lancashire) was originally the tea-chest bass player of The Quarrymen, afterwards he became manager of the band until 1958.

Early life

Whalley lived in Vale Road, close to John Lennon. The two were friends from the age of five.

Role in the Quarrymen

Lennon set up the Quarrymen in spring 1957. Whalley was originally one of the tea-chest bass players in the band, the other being Ivan Vaughan.

One night two Teddy Boys threatened to beat up the band and the Quarrymen fled, with Whalley leaving his tea-chest bass behind on the road.

After this event, Whalley became manager of the band, and Len Garry took over on tea-chest bass

Whalley also became an apprentice golf pro at this time, and he eventually become a golf pro at Wrotham Heath Golf Club in Borough Green, Kent, until he contracted TB sometime in 1958.

The Quarrymen - 58 to 62

Label: Middle Record Company, QMCD593
Year: 1993

1. Hallelujah I Love Her So (2:22)
2. One After 909 (2:29)
3. I'll Always Be In Love With You (2:24)
4. You'll Be Mine (1:45)
5. Matchbox (1:02)
6. Wildcat (2:31)
7. Some Days (1:36)
8. Looking Glass (2:26)
9. I'll Follow The Sun (1:48)
10. One After 909 (1:31)
11. Well Darling (3:23)
12. You Must Write Every Day (2:35)
13. Movin' And Groovin' (2:20)
14. That's When Your Heartaches Begin (1:16)
15. Hello Little Girl (1:56)
16. The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise (1:30)
17. That'll Be The Day (1:04)
18. Instrumental Jam 1 (7:44)
19. Instrumental Jam 2 (7:56)
20. Instrumental Jam 3 (5:53)
21. I Saw Her Standing There (3:08)
22. One After 909 (3:12)
23. One After 909 (3:17)
24. Catswalk (1:23)
25. Catswalk (1:23)

Beatle People: Ivan Vaughan

Ivan Vaughan (18 June 1942 - 16 August 1993) was a boyhood friend of John Lennon, and later schoolmate of Paul McCartney at the Liverpool Institute, both commencing school there in Sept. 1953. He was born on the same day as Paul McCartney in Liverpool. He played bass part-time in Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen, and was responsible for introducing Lennon to Paul McCartney at a community event (the Woolton village fête) on July 6, 1957, where The Quarrymen were performing. McCartney impressed Lennon, who invited McCartney to join the band, which he did a few weeks later. This led to the formation of Lennon and McCartney's songwriting partnership, and later of The Beatles.

Vaughan studied classics at University College, London, married in 1966 and settled down to family life with a son and daughter, and became a teacher.

Lennon and McCartney never forgot the friend who brought them together. For a time they put Vaughan on the payroll of their Apple company, in charge of a plan that never took off to set up a school with a Sixties, hippie-style education ethos. Vaughan's wife Jan, a languages teacher, was hired to sit down with Lennon and McCartney and help with the French lyrics to the 1965 classic "Michelle."

In 1977, Vaughan was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. His book, Ivan: Living with Parkinson’s Disease was published in 1986 and he also made a documentary for the BBC in 1984 about his search for a cure.

Vaughan's death touched Paul McCartney so deeply that he began to write poetry for the first time since he was a child. He wrote the poem "Ivan" about him after his death, and was published in McCartney's book, Blackbird Singing.

Wikipedia

Beatle People: Eric Griffiths

Eric Ronald Griffiths (October 31, 1940 – January 29, 2005) was the guitarist in the original lineup of The Quarry Men until he left the group in the summer of 1958.

Biography

Born in Denbigh, North Wales, to Liverpudlian parents, Eric's mother returned to Liverpool in 1945 to live with her parents after her husband's death as an RAF pilot in World War II. In 1950 the family moved to Halewood Drive, Woolton and at the age of 11 Griffiths won a scholarship to Quarry Bank High School where he met John Lennon, Pete Shotton and Rod Davis.

The four boys were in the same House at school and shared an interest in American music; particularly skiffle. Lennon and Griffiths attended some guitar lessons but found it too slow to learn and dropped the lessons when Lennon's mother taught them to play easier banjo chords. The two boys would play truant to practice in the Griffiths home whilst his mother was at work. Griffiths also befriended a novice drummer, Colin Hanton, with whom he would also practice. When Lennon formed The Quarry Men with Shotton and Davis, Griffiths was invited to add his rudimentary skills because he had a new guitar.

Griffiths left school in the summer of 1957 with GCE passes in English, Mathematics and History and became an engineering apprentice whilst continuing to play as lead guitarist in the band. When Paul McCartney joined The Quarry Men he aspired to be lead guitarist but his ineptitude at his one public attempt stymied that. The other band members decided that neither McCartney nor Griffiths were suitable lead guitarists. When George Harrison joined the band they suggested that Griffiths buy an electric bass and an amplifier but he could not afford this. Griffiths was not invited to McCartney's house for the next rehearsal and when he coincidently phoned them during the practice session, John went to the phone and told that him was sacked.

Griffiths decided to abandon engineering too and he joined the Merchant Navy as a cadet navigating officer. He continued to meet his old friends from the band when he was on leave but he lost contact with Lennon and McCartney after they first recorded with EMI.

Griffiths left the navy in 1964 and married Relda at Woolton Parish Church. He spent the next thirty years working in the prison service modernizing prisoners' working practices. In 1972 he left the English Prison Service to join the Scottish Prison Service and he moved to Edinburgh with his wife and three sons.

In 1994 he left the Prison Service to concentrate on running the family business, a chain of dry cleaners.

In January 1997, Griffiths returned to Liverpool to meet some of his former band members at the Cavern Club's 40th anniversary. All the surviving original Quarry Men were there and that evening they gave an impromptu performance with borrowed instruments on the stage. When the band were persuaded to reform for a charity gig in Woolton in July 1997 Griffiths had to buy a guitar and re-learn a few chords.

The reunion was a huge success and generated demand for a CD. Griffiths decided that the reformed band should record an album and John Lennon’s Original Quarrymen—Get back Together was released in September 1997. Griffiths then toured widely with The Quarrymen until his last performance at SAS Garden Hotel, Trondheim, Norway on November 27, 2004. He had been complaining of back pain and it became so acute that he had a hospital check-up and pancreatic cancer was diagnosed.

He died at his Edinburgh home on January 29, 2005. He is survived by his wife, Relda, and their three sons, Tim, Matthew and Daniel.

Wikipedia

The Quarrymen at Home

Label: Chapter One, CO25190

Total Time: 40:54

An early Beatles ("Quarrymen") rehearsal in Liverpool, with Stu Sutcliffe on bass, May 1960
1 Hallelujah I Love Her So 2:21
2 One After 909 (version 1) 2:34
3 I'll Always Be In Love With You 2:56
4 You'll Be Mine 1:44
5 Matchbox 1:05
6 Wildcat 2:32
7 Some Days 1:39
8 Looking Glass 2:28
9 I'll Follow The Sun 2:28
10 One After 909 (version 2) 1:31
11 Well Darling 3:28
12 You Must Write Every Day 2:38
13 Moovin' 'n' Groovin' 2:18
14 That's When Your Heartaches Begin 1:24
15 Hello Little Girl 1:59
16 The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise 1:30
Quarrymen-Acetate, 1958
17 That'll Be The Day 1:06
First version with original Tony Sheridan vocals, Hamburg, April 1962
18 Sweet Georgia Brown 2:03
Live at the Star Club, Hamburg, December 1962
19 I Saw Her Standing There 3:40
20 Red Hot 0:59