Here’s another one-hit wonder. Skiffle singles were as rare as hen’s teeth by 1972, although this novelty tune does bear a close resemblance to Mungo Jerry’s 1970 chart-topper In The Summer Time (try singing it over this), which may explain its success.
As, regrettably, does the involvement of pop guru and convicted paedo Jonathan King, who did the marketing and distribution.
Its main point of interest the presence of Jona Lewie, aka ‘Terry Dactyl’, on accordion and lead vocals, almost a decade before he would go on to have a couple of big solo hits with another novelty tune, You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties, and the protest song Stop The Cavalry, which has bizarrely become a sentimental festive staple on account of one line in its lyric.
The rest of this made-up group – Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs – are guitarist Graham Hine, drummer Keith Trussell (aka Keef Trouble) and John Randall, playing a skiffle instrument with a workman’s boot on the bottom, known variously as a rhythm pole and a zob stick, for making a stomping sound.
After this, the band – minus Lewie – went back to being Brett Marvin & The Thunderbolts, the British blues band they had been before, and supported Derek & The Dominoes, among others, while he eventually went on to bigger and better things.
As for the Thunderbolts: not so much.