Tuesday, July 14, 2009

MY BONNIE, Beatles, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sakura/Quests, Johnny Lion/Jumping Jewels

My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean is supposed to be a traditional Scottish folk song but it may have its origin in the history of Charles Edward Stuart, commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie in the 18th Century.
It was revived when an arrangement and recording was completed as an album in 1962 by Tony Sheridan - English singer/songwriter/guitarist - with musical backing by The Beatles. It was the first commercial record with their names on it. The Beatles were an unknown beat combo then and were originally called the Beat Brothers.
Again, it had been recorded by many artistes. Ray Charles was one and performed a soul version of the song, while Jerry Lee Lewis recorded his version earlier in 1960. In Singapore, Sakura and The Quests recorded it, while Johnny Lion fronted the Jumping Jewels with their version in the middle 60s.
At the pop concerts in Singapore, there would be at least one guitar group playing and singing this song. The guitar rift in between, was usually the hightlight and provided the lead guitarist to show off his fingering skills. The chorus was a sing-a-long where the audience screamed, "Bring back my bonnie..."
The song was also in the repertoire of the Silver Strings who played it often.
Information: Wikipedia and Website sources.
Original article: Andy Lim.

4 comments:

yg said...

my bonnie became a very popular campfire song in the 70s, usually sung with actions. the actions of the boys showed that they liked to imagine 'bonnie' as a voluptuos woman - with a 36-24-36 figure. today's figure would be 86-58-86.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

There are many campfire songs and they vary in lyrical content, rhythm and style. The more appropriate ones have caught the attention of pop artistes in the 60s and made into hits.

Roger said...

A touching song surely.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Sometimes it's sung accordingly and the personal version for the little folks at home is, "I dreamt that my bonnie was wed," instead of "dead."