Jona Lewie
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Jona Lewie (born John Lewis, March 14, 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Lewis started in the music business as a session pianist, before forming the cult pub-rock band Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts in the late 1960s. The group were a popular live act for several years, but their only mainstream hit single was Seaside Shuffle (1972), released under the one-off nom de disque Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs. Borrowing heavily from Mungo Jerry's 1970 chart-topper In The Summertime, Seaside Shuffle was an unashamedly commercial disc quite at odds with the Thunderbolts' usual style, and reached number 2 in the British singles chart.
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However, Lewis looked likely to remain a one-hit wonder until he was signed up by Stiff Records in 1977. Following appearances on the Stiff package tours, he finally scored a solo hit with the humorous synthpop number, You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties (1980) - (right) which made the British top 20. Although his next single Big Shot - Momentarily failed to make any impact, by the end of the year he was back in the charts with what became his biggest (and, to date, last) hit, Stop The Cavalry.
Although now one of Britain's most familiar Christmas singles, Stop The Cavalry was not originally intended as a Christmas song – the one line referring to the festival was added at the last minute when Lewie realised the record would be coming out in November.
Since Stop The Cavalry Lewie has scored no more British hits, though Louise We Get It Right (1981) sold well in some countries.
Lewie has since been able to live comfortably on the continuing proceeds which Christmas airplay of Stop The Cavalry has annually brought him, as well as the proceeds from some wise property investments.
The tune and style of Stop The Cavalry was later parodied for a series of catchy and humorous TV adverts for John Smith's beer.