John Donovan Discography

John Donovan (1914–1949) of Malin Head, Co. Donegal, recorded six songs for the Irish branch of the British His Master’s Voice (HMV) company in Dublin over two days, 7 and 8 June 1945, recording each song twice. He was accompanied on guitar, by an unidentified musician.

The second recordings of each song were issued by HMV on three 78 rpm discs on its red Regal-Zonophone label and on its blue Columbia label at intervals over the next year (details below in order of issue). The IZ and IFB numbers are the catalogue numbers of each disc; the CAL numbers are the matrix numbers of each track.

The recordings were sponsored by the Carndonagh firm of Neal Doherty, a record retailer which advertised as Donovan’s sole agent. The firm promoted Donovan as the ‘Malin Head Fisherman’, saying that he had an unusual voice and that his hill-billy and come-all-ye songs were becoming ever more popular. As a member of a local dance band, it said, Donovan had contributed to entertainments over a wide area of Donegal and the majority of the songs he recorded were his own compositions. He was about thirty years of age at the time of recording.

At the time that Donovan came to record for HMV, a record industry based in Ireland had only been in operation for about a decade. The British record conglomerate EMI (Electrical and Musical Industries), the parent firm of HMV, had set up in Ireland in 1936, basing itself in Dublin but with a record manufacturing plant in Waterford. Before that time, Irish artists had gone to Britain (usually London) to record, or British firms such as Parlophone had sent teams to Ireland on short-term recording trips. EMI itself had only been formed in 1931; it combined earlier entities such as Columbia, HMV, Regal etc., and these continued as distinct labels of the conglomerate. EMI had been forced to come to Ireland by the Irish government. Sean Lemass, then Minister for Industry and Commerce, had imposed an import tariff on all imported gramophone records, and this made it more economical for EMI to manufacture in Ireland, which it then did until the 1980s (other British companies such as Decca paid the tariff or went to the Waterford factory). Having an office on the ground in Ireland made it easier for the EMI labels to make contact with local artists and, as in the case of Doherty’s of Carndonagh, make local sponsorship deals.

From 1936, at a time when Irish radio was still only becoming established, EMI Ireland successfully introduced to the Irish record-buying public a range of Irish, British and American singers and musicians. The catalogues of the time feature such Irish performers as singers Delia Murphy, Richard Hayward and Máire Ní Scolaidhe; traditional performers Leo Rowsome on uilleann pipes, Terry Lane on accordion and John Joe Gardiner on fiddle; and the new emerging ensemble of the ceili band with bands from around the country: the Ballinakill, the Austin Stack and the Garda Metropolitan. Traditional performers recorded in the United States in the 1920s – such as fiddle player Michael Coleman – were reissued. British and American ‘jazz’ singers were also popular, as were big bands such as those of Billy Cotton and Glenn Miller.

Noticeable was a taste for American cowboy singers and old-timey musicians, forerunners of the Irish country and western industry of today. John Donovan with his ‘hill-billy and come-all-ye’ songs and his recordings of Irish roses, harvest moons and tramp’s mothers, spanned both Irish and international song genres.

Disc 1

Regal-Zonophone, Dublin, IZ 1296; also issued Columbia, Dublin, IFB 405

John Donovan, tenor with guitar accompaniment

Recorded: Dublin, 7 June 1945; Issued: December 1945; Master recording destroyed: 26 May 1966

Side A My Lovely Irish Rose, matrix CAL 382-2

Side B The Rose of Moray, matrix CAL 383-2

Disc 2

Regal-Zonophone, Dublin, IZ 1295; also issued Columbia, Dublin, IFB 404

John Donovan, tenor with guitar accompaniment

Recorded: Dublin, 7 June 1945; Issued: April 1946; Master recording destroyed 26 May 1966

Side A When the Harvest Moon is Shining, matrix CAL 380-2

Side B As Years Rolled By, matrix CAL 381-2

Disc 3

Regal-Zonophone, Dublin, IZ 1297; also issued Columbia, Dublin, IFB 299

John Donovan, tenor with guitar accompaniment

Recorded: Dublin, 7 June (side A) & 8 June (side B) 1945; Issued: August–September 1946; Master recording destroyed: 26 May 1966

Side A The Flowers in May, matrix CAL 379-2

Side B The Tramp’s Mother, matrix CAL 384-2