Famous Like Me > Actor > B > Johnny Burke
Profile of Johnny Burke
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Name: |
Johnny Burke |
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Date of Birth: |
3rd October 1908 |
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Place of Birth: |
Antioch, California, USA |
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Profession: |
Actor |
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From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia Johnny Burke was a lyricist who died in 1964
Johnny Burke (1851 - 1930) was a Newfoundland songwriter and musician. He was nicknamed the 'Bard of Prescott Street'. He wrote many popular songs that artists in the 1930s and 1940s released.
Burke was the son of a well-known sealing captain. He worked as a poet, actor, singer and playwright, but is best known for writing songs about contemporary events and personalities, songs that revealed Burke's sharp eye for detail and deft touch with wit and satire.
Burke also wrote and staged musical comedies. His first, The Battle Of Foxtrap was an immediate sensation when it opened at the Total Abstinence Hall in 1881. Later shows include The Runaway Girl From Fogo, The Topsail Geisha and Cotton's Patch.
Burke marketed his songs on "broadsheets", printed pages of lyrics that sold for two to five cents a copy. He became the most popular member of a busy songwriting community that also included T.M. Lannigan, Michael Power, Johnny Quigley, Johnny Quill and James Murphy. Several of his songs have endured to become standards of the Newfoundland repertoire, still recorded and sung today.
Popular songs by Burke include:
- The Night Paddy Murphy Died
- Cod Liver Oil (song)
- Who Shipped The Moonshine To St. John's
- The Spring Maurice Crotty Fought The Old Dog-hood
- The Kelligrews Soiree
- The Trinity Cake
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