Johnny Duncan (1938)

Johnny Duncan was born on September 7, 1932 in the Windrock coal mining camp overlooking the town of Oliver Springs, Tennessee and became a British skiffle music star in 1957 with the hit Last Train to San Fernando recorded with the help of his group the Bluegrass Boys He died on July 15, 2000 in Australia.

Johnny Duncan entered the United States Army and was sent to England where he met and married his wife Betty in 1952. After a short return to the USA he went back to England with Betty who needed a hosital operation.
On a visit to London Johnny Duncan went to hear Chris Barber's Dixieland Band which had turned Lonnie Donegan into a star with his international skiffle hit recording of Rock Island Line. Barber signed Duncan to play with his band where he stayed for a year.
His first unsuccessful solo recording was a cover of Hank Williams' Kaw-Liga, but in 1957 his recording of a calypso called Last Train To San Fernando became the seventeenth most popular recording of that year in Britain and its only rivals were Buddy Holly's That’ll Be The Day; True Love by Bing Crosby and especially Diana by Paul Anka.

As a result of his chart success he became a regular on 6.5 Special, the first teenage program on BBC television and his own program Tennessee Songbag on BBC radio.
Although Johnny Duncan continued to record for a period of time the skiffle fad faded and so did the success of Johnny Duncan. Following his divorce he emigrated to Australia, briefly returned to England and then back to Australia where he married for a second time. On occasion he did perform in Australia, but he had basically left show business after his return to Australia. In 1999 while his health was fading he did make new recordings in Australia just before he died in 2000.

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