"Tom Hark" is an instrumental South African
kwela song from the 1950s, believed to have been composed by
Jack Lerole.
The song was arranged for
penny whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...
and first recorded by
Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes—a South African band formed by pennywhistlers Jack and his brother Elias Lerole—and released in 1956.
It was later released in the UK after it was used as a theme on a TV series, and it reached number 2 on the UK chart in 1958.
Recordings artists of various genres have covered the song, and some of them added original lyrics. A version by
the Piranhas
The Piranhas were a British ska-influenced punk band from Brighton. They are best known for their cover version of the song "Tom Hark".
Career
The Piranhas formed in 1977, and were originally part of the Brighton punk scene, first coming to pr ...
became a hit in 1980 in the UK, and it has been adapted into football chants.
Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes recording
The song was composed by Jack Lerole around 1954,
although other people also claimed to have written the song.
Jack and Elias Lerole and their band were performing on the street of
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
when
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
South Africa record producer
Rupert Bopape
Rupert may refer to:
People
* Rupert (name), various people known by the given name or surname "Rupert"
Places Canada
*Rupert, Quebec, a village
*Rupert Bay, a large bay located on the south-east shore of James Bay
*Rupert River, Quebec
*Rupert' ...
(1925–2012) came across them, and offered them a recording contract. They recorded the song in 1956 with their band
Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes on pennywhistles, with a satirical spoken introduction. The song, however, is credited to Bopape; the right to the song is said to have been sold to Bopape by Lerole for 11
guineas,
with the other members of the band paid $10 (6 guineas) each for their work. This version was released in 1956.
The title, "Tom Hark", is thought to be either a misspelling or deliberate wordplay on "Tomahawk", the original title of the song. Tomahawk was carried by street children such as Jack and Elias Lerole for protection.
The tune was used as theme music for a British TV series in 1958 about diamond smuggling in South Africa, ''The Killing Stones''. It was then released as a single in the UK, and it entered the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
at number 30 on 25 April 1958; on 24 May it reached number 2, and held that position for four weeks. In all, the song was in the UK charts for about 14 weeks.
Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes was later renamed Alexandra Black Mambazo and they recorded a vocal version of the song..
Early covers
In the UK,
Ted Heath and His Music
George Edward Heath (30 March 1902 – 18 November 1969) was a British musician and big band leader.
Heath led what is widely considered Britain's greatest post-war big band, recording more than 100 albums, which sold over 20 million copies. Th ...
released a cover of the song soon after release of the original in 1958.
In 1962, English singer
Jimmy Powell released a new version of the song with original lyrics. Jamaican singer-songwriter
Millie Small covered Powell's version on her 1964 album ''
My Boy Lollipop''. That same year,
Mickey Finn and the Blue Men released their own instrumental cover in the UK as a
7-inch single
In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...
. The next year,
Georgie Fame released a different arrangement of the song (with lyrics) on his 1965 album ''Fame at Last''.
Whistling Jack Smith
John O'Neill (1926–1999) was a British musician, known as a singer, whistler, and trumpeter.
Biography
Born in Stanley, County Durham, England, to Northern Irish parents from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, O'Neill was largely self-taught a ...
whistled his cover on his 1967 album ''Around the World with Whistling Jack''. In 1969, Jamaican band The Dynamites recorded an instrumental reggae version retitled 'John Public'.
In the 1970s, instrumental versions of the song were recorded by Jumbo Sterling's All-Stars for their 1970 album ''Reggae Party''; by
Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra for their 1977 album ''Safari Swings Again''; and, in the UK circa 1979, by Captain Morgan & His Merry Men for a
12-inch
The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...
reggae single.
The Piranhas version
When
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
-based punk band
the Piranhas
The Piranhas were a British ska-influenced punk band from Brighton. They are best known for their cover version of the song "Tom Hark".
Career
The Piranhas formed in 1977, and were originally part of the Brighton punk scene, first coming to pr ...
covered the song in 1980, they used new lyrics written by their
frontman
The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...
, "Boring" Bob Grover. The song peaked at number 6 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
, and was the band's most successful single.
The Piranhas version was used as background music in
Chris Evans' TV show ''
TFI Friday''.
The Piranhas version has since been adapted by football fans as
chants
A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes ...
in Great Britain and Ireland.
Charts
Seagulls Ska version
In 2005, the temporary
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
-based band named Seagulls Ska, made up of
Brighton and Hove Albion F.C.
Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...
fans, released their version titled "Tom Hark (We Want Falmer!)". It is a remake of the 1980 Piranhas hit which came to be used as an anthem at many football grounds. The song was released in January 2005 to highlight the club's plight in building a new stadium at
Falmer. On 15 January 2005, it reached number 17 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
and remained in the chart for three weeks. The club's stadium at Falmer eventually opened over six years after the single's release, in July 2011.
The lyrics were rewritten by
Attila the Stockbroker.
Track listing
# "Tom Hark (We Want Falmer!)" (Bopeape/
Baine/
Grover)
# "
Sussex by the Sea
"Sussex by the Sea" (also known as "A Horse Galloping") is a song written in 1907 by William Ward-Higgs, often considered to be the unofficial county anthem of Sussex. It became well known throughout Sussex and is regularly sung at celebrations t ...
" (Instrumental Version) (Traditional)
# "Sussex by the Sea" (Singalong Version) (Traditional)
# "Roll Up for the Donkey Derby...." (Baine)
Other versions
The South African band
Mango Groove
Mango Groove is an 11-piece South African Afropop band whose music fuses pop and township music—especially marabi and kwela.
Since their foundation in 1984, the band has released six studio albums and numerous singles. Their most recen ...
released a version of the song on their 1997 album ''Dance Sum More: All the Hits So Far''.
Jack Lerole, who co-founded
Elias and His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes (the first band to record "Tom Hark"), was also a founding member of Mango Groove. However, he left Mango Groove several years before they recorded their cover of the song.
Other covers of "Tom Hark" can be found in such diverse albums as ''Freight Train'' (1993), a
live album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by British
skiffle
Skiffle is a genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, country, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a form in the United States ...
musician
Chas McDevitt
Charles James McDevitt (born 4 December 1934) is a Scottish musician, one of the leading lights of the skiffle genre which was highly influential and popular in the United Kingdom in the mid-to-late 1950s.
Biography
McDevitt was born in Eaglesh ...
; ''The Dansan Sequence Collection, Volume 2'' (1993), a
Dixieland cover album by Bryan Smith & His Dixielanders; and ''Party Crazy'' (2000), a novelty album by
Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers. The song can be heard in Instance Automatics claws Prize Circus and Maxx Grab Evolution.
The song has also been adopted by various groups of
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
fans, most famously by
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
fans who sang it to describe
Wayne Rooney
Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while als ...
as "the white
Pele".
References
{{Authority control
1956 songs
1956 singles
1980 singles
Football songs and chants
Pop instrumentals
South African songs
1950s instrumentals
Columbia Records singles
Sire Records singles