Nancy Whiskey & Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group 'Freight Train' on The Ed Sullivan Show

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The Ed Sullivan Show was a television variety program that aired on CBS from 1948-1971. For 23 years it aired every Sunday night and played host to the world's greatest talents. The Ed Sullivan Show is well known for bringing rock n' roll music to the forefront of American culture through acts like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. The entertainers each week ranged from comedians like Joan Rivers and Rodney Dangerfield, to Broadway stars Julie Andrews and Richard Burton, to pop singers such as Bobby Darin and Petula Clark. It also frequently featured stars of Motown such as The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder and The Jackson 5. The Ed Sullivan Show was one of the only places on American television where such a wide variety of popular culture was showcased and its legacy lives on to this day.

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#NancyWhiskey #ChasMcDevitt #EdSullivan #EdSullivanShow

[TomElvisSmith]

The history of this song is complex, although it was very popular in 1957. According to Wikipedia, "Freight Train" was written by Elizabeth Cotten when she was a teenager somewhere between 1906 and 1912. She was inspired by hearing the sound of the trains going by her home in North Carolina. At one point, she was a nanny for Peggy Seeger who brought the song to England. It caught on in folk-music circles. Two British songwriters, using pseudonyms, erroneously claimed they wrote this song and added a storyline about a criminal to the lyrics. It was then recorded by skiffle band singer Chas McDevitt. McDevitt's manager told Chas to have folk-singer Nancy Whiskey re-record the song with him, which she did, and this set the song on the way to becoming a hit. This version charted at number 40 in Billboard and number 5 on the UK Singles chart. However, it was a version by Rusty Draper, which cleaned up the lyrics by deleting some of the added storyline about the criminal, which became a much bigger hit in the US, charting at number 6 in Billboard around the time of this Sullivan show.

Another rare performance from this same episode is of Bonnie Guitar singing her big hit of 1957, "Dark Moon". It would be great if you could post that footage as well! There doesn't appear to be any videos of Bonnie from the 1950's on YouTube, so it's possible the performance hasn't been seen since it was first aired.

[vec]

John Lennon’s first group, The Quarrymen, featured a washboard played by his friend Pete Shotton.

[CharlesMartini-otig]

I just love this so very much from charles❤.

[StephanieJeanne]

Skiffle, you say? I'm interested. Can't wait to hear this!☺️

[ShiftingDrifter]

Awesome! I didn't even know skiffle groups were a thing back then.

[VTMCompany]

"Asteroid City" closing credits.

[LastTree]

Whata trip this is what the English were influnced by. Like Beatles.

[tomc]

As far as skiffle, I wonder if they ever played “Last Train to San Fernando” with Johnny Duncan on the Ed Sullivan Show.

[BuffaloBeatle]

No more hating on the Foo Fighters for having four guitarists!

[clintoncavallaro]

This show aired 4 days before I was born.
❤❤❤❤❤

[Kw]

Thanks for a Skiffle band from the U.K. other than “Does your Chewing Gum Lose its Favor on the Bed Post Overnight “….a guilty pleasure from Lonny D….😂!
Have a great day!

[fhfdgddggdg]

the band reminds of the beach boys nice song that

[SamBroadway]

I haven't seen anybody play the washboard since Granny clampett in The Beverly hillbillies

[brucecollins]

nancy whisky is scottish but her real name is..anne alexandra young took her stage name from an auld scots sang..calton weaver.. where the words nancy whisky are to be found. look up scots folk singer hamish imlach sing the calton weaver in the guid scot tongue on you

[istanbullular_dernegi]

*ISTANBUL*






*(06.03.2025)*

[ryceE]

Hi everyone, i would love to hit 1k before my birthday so i can get a professional led light for recording

[damonwilliams]

Being British should that not have been 'Goods Train?'.

[Gennettor-nckx]

How monotonous.... The "Skiffle" rage blew over quickly....

[maryford]

She has a very average singing voice and terrible diction. I loved this song but has to have been because of the skiffle group

[HoorayTV]

Has this footage been ai upscaled? Please don't do that going forward. Its obvious and looks just terrible. The footage looks how it looks at this point. Cleaning dirt etc is one thing but dated computer manipulation will always be worse than scratches.