大象传媒

When Elvis arrived at Sun Studios for the sessions that would ignite the rock and roll revolution he made sure they included one song in particular.
Harbour Lights was one of just a couple of dozen that the King of Rock and Roll cut in the historic Memphis studio in the 1950s.
Crucially, it was one of his mother’s favourites.
Together these songs are viewed as being amongst the foundation stones on which rock and roll was built.
Harbour Lights found itself in such exalted company as That’s Alright Mama, Blue Moon and Baby Let’s Play House.
What may be less well known is that it was written in 1937 by a songwriter from Northern Ireland.
His success in America was eventually so great that it took The Beatles to overtake it.
The songwriter was Jimmy Kennedy.

As if being part of rock and roll’s founding text was not enough – it is arguable that Jimmy Kennedy is best known for another song.
For he was the man who wrote The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.
Music historian and presenter Paul Gambaccini said his diverse range of songs became a key part of the Great American Songbook that remain popular today.
“Jimmy Kennedy wrote five American number ones – until Lennon and McCartney, Jimmy was the most successful British or Irish songwriter in America.
“The reason you don’t think of the Jimmy Kennedy songbook is because the songs are so different. Over here you’ve got Teddy Bears’ Picnic, over here you’ve got My Prayer, over here you’ve got Romeo, over here you’ve got Red Sails in the Sunset, South of the Border, Love Is Like A Violin.
“And you are thinking ‘wait a minute, is this the same guy?’ Well it is the same guy!”

Jimmy Kennedy once reflected that he wrote 500 songs before he got one published. It was The Teddy Bears’ Picnic that eventually catapulted him into the big time.
It was written after the 大象传媒 Light Music Orchestra asked him for a children’s song. The recording, made in 1933, was a huge success, selling almost four million copies by the end of the decade.
Harbour Lights followed four years later.
Two years after that Jimmy Kennedy’s sister sent him a postcard about a trip she took from California to Mexico.That resulted in South of the Border, which brought him further international acclaim and was recorded by Perry Como, Tony Bennett and Bing Crosby. When World War Two broke out he joined the Territorial Army. One night he came across some Canadian officers out for an evening in a club and asked them what they were singing. They said it was a traditional song, sung by prospectors, called The Hokey Cokey.

Jimmy Kennedy reworked this as The Cokey Cokey and another timeless hit at weddings and birthday parties was born.

But who was this man who eventually became the toast of Tin Pan Alley and helped fill the Great American songbook with songs that still resonate today?
Jimmy Kennedy was born in County Tyrone in 1902, went to Trinity College Dublin and turned his attention to songwriting while he was still in his teens.
He quickly realised that publishers had more tunes than songs, so he decided to concentrate on lyrics - and that was his route in.
Success was not instant, but in the course of five decades he wrote more than 2,000 songs which were covered by many of the biggest stars of the golden era of popular music.

His son Jim Kennedy said: "My father was an Ulster-Scot and his family came over from Ayrshire a couple of hundred years ago, so if you looked at the Kennedy household you would have found various musical instruments, lots of sheet music that they had got a hold of.

"I think that imbibed in the family a musicality if you like, a love of the ballad in particular."

As well as Elvis and The Beatles the list of acts who covered his songs included Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Jimmy Kennedy died in 1984 and his achievements were recognised when he was inducted into the American Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1997.

Duke Special, who hosted a concert in honour of his achievements featuring some of his most enduring songs, said: "The Twentieth Century was a golden era for performers who would become legends, such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin.

"Some of their biggest hits were written by an extraordinary songwriter from a small town in Ulster. His magical touch virtually guaranteed a top slot in the British and American charts, so it was no wonder that a host of music's biggest names recorded his songs, many of which were destined to become classics."

* The Jimmy Kennedy Songbook is on 大象传媒 Two Northern Ireland at 2200 on Sunday, March 8.