The Originals © by Arnold Rypens

Artist: Roaring Lion
Author: Raphael De Leon
Label: Guild/Musicraft
Year: 1946

Real name: Hubert Raphael. The Caribbean region had to wait for V-Day '45 and the capitulation of Japan before carnival could be celebrated again. Mary Ann was the song of the first post-war edition. Credited to Raphael De Leon, alias The Roaring Lion (see: Ugly Woman). Lyrics were based upon a smutty song from San Andreas: Sound Bay Girl, see: Folkways collection Caribbean Rhythms. Reissued on Ice, Eddy Grant's label, and on CD Sacred 78's.

Covers:

1947:: Lord Invader [for Moses Asch in New York]
1947:: Xavier Cugat [credited to Davis/Castro, authors of another Mary Ann, first cut by Ukulele Ike (Cliff Edwards)]
1950s:: Sir Lancelot & Chino Ortiz & The Trinidad Serenaders
1951:: Cyril Blake's Calypso Serenaders
1953:: Blind Blake & The Royal Victoria Hotel Calypso Orch. [from the Bahamas]
1954:: Charmer [alias Louis Farrakhan]
1957:: Terry Gilkyson [as Marianne; credited as the author since]
1957:: Hilltoppers [idem; top 3 US]
1957:: Burl Ives & His Trinidaddies [hosted a TV show with Sir Lancelot Pinard as a frequent guest]
1957:: Bobbejaan Schoepen [as Marianne]
1958:: Peggy Seeger
1963:: Trini Lopez
1967:: Merrymen
1972:: Joseph Spence
1974:: Harry Belafonte [covered Ray Charles' Mary Ann in '58 (see there)]
1974:: Cobi Schreijer [as Marianne, crediting Peggy Seeger]

Terry Gilkyson also wrote the Dean Martin hit Memories Are Made Of This and the Disney smash Bare Necessities from Jungle Book. In Marianne he only altered the spelling.

MARY ANN

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