Almanac Music: Jim Johnson, ‘Leprechaun Lullaby’ and Bert

 

 

 

The recent death of Bert Newton (1938 – 2021) triggered some very strong memories for our 86 year old enthusiast (enthusiastic across all aspects of life) Jim Johnson.

 

Jim was the star of one of the early episodes of the television show In Melbourne Tonight. He recalls it was one of the first TV shows using the coaxial cable connected at the same time with the Sydney evening show, with Don Lane hosting, around 1965. Jim had appeared on New Faces (talent show) and made it through to the finals. Mike Dyer visited Jim at his antiques business in Camberwell Road, Camberwell, and said he could get him a spot on the coaxial-cabled show if Jim was interested. Jim went to Richmond and sang with the Channel 9 band backing him. He performed ‘Leprechaun Lullaby’ going through it once with the band. He was told it was ‘good enough first time’ so it was recorded in one go. It was played straight in to the show that evening. Jim has an audio copy on which you can hear Bert Newton saying, “That was good”. Sadly, he does not have a video copy.

 

The song ‘Leprechaun Lullaby’ has a story of its own. Jim first heard it on the Three Gong Show on 3AW radio, and liked it. However, he couldn’t locate the sheet music. So he recorded the song, and had someone write out the music for him. The song was one of Shirley Abicair’s numbers. [Shirley Abicair is pretty interesting herself – Ed] Since then, Jim has located a copy of the sheet music with lyrics (original price 2/-).

 

Jim is a man of many talents.

 

Here’s a version by Pat O’Brien.

 

 

 

 

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