GEORGE: "NO LEAD BELLY, NO BEATLES",NEW LEAD BELLY DOCUMENTARY TRACES ROOTS OF THE BEATLEStles

'No Lead Belly, no Beatles': TV documentary, box set celebrate folk legend's influence
Smithsonian TV documentary, box set celebrate Lead Belly.

Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter never had a hit record before he died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 1949. But the folksinging legend, who is being celebrated next week as part of Black History Month by the Smithsonian with a TV documentary and 5-CD box set, left behind a treasure trove of recordings that yielded many hits for those who followed him.
Huddie Lead Belly Ledbetter never had a hit record before he died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 1949. But the folk-singing legend, who is being celebrated as part.

 

Just months after his death, the folk group The Weavers, featuring his close friend Pete Seeger, hit No. 1 on the pop charts with his theme song "Good Night Irene," which he first recorded in 1933 while an inmate at Louisiana's notorious Angola State Prison by father-and-son musicologists John and Alan Lomax. Among those inspired by Lead Belly was Lonnie Donegan, the founding father of British pop, who had a big hit with his sped-up version of "Rock Island Line." Donegan inspired British teens to form skiffle groups, including 15-year-old John Lennon who founded The Quarrymen in 1956 and later added Paul McCartney and George Harrison to the band.
"George Harrison once said, 'No Lead Belly, no Lonnie Donegan. Therefore no Lead Belly, no Beatles,'" said John Reynolds, author of "Lead Belly: A Life in Pictures."

Reynolds is among the experts, family members and musicians interviewed in the documentary, "Legend of Lead Belly," which premieres Monday at 8 p.m. EST on the Smithsonian Channel.