"Ring, Ring I've Got To Sing" was composed and performed by Ferre Grignard

Ferre Grignard

Ferre Grignard was a Belgian skiffle-singer from Antwerp who surprised the world in 1965 with his international hits "Ring Ring, I've Got To Sing" and "My Crucified Jesus".-Biography:...

 in the early 1960s. It became an international hit.

History

After an unsuccessful career as an artist, Ferre Grignard had learned to play the guitar and sing the blues. In 1964, “De Muze” opened in Antwerp. It was a bar often frequented by people with an alternative life-style. Ferre Grignard often performed there and "Ring, Ring I've Got to Sing" was greatly appreciated. In 1965, the owner invited him to record the song. Not long thereafter Hans Kusters, a music producer who also owned a record company, heard the song and asked Ferre Grignard to record it once again. In 1966, it became a hit and because of its mixture of skiffle

Skiffle

Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...

, folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 and blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, Grignard's first album Ring, Ring I've Got to Sing scored high on the European charts.

Afterwards the song was re-issued many times and it appeared in numerous compilations. In 2007, the song was inducted into the Flemish Hall of Fame of pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

. At present “Ring, Ring I've Got To Sing” is still present on many Belgian all-time top hit charts.

External links

• http://www.humo.be/tws/humo-files/14567/humo-sprak-met-ferre-grignard.html (in Dutch)