A Pub with No Beer
"A Pub with No Beer" is the title of a humorous country song made famous by country singers Slim Dusty and Bobbejaan Schoepen.
Gordon Parsons wrote and arranged the song about his local pub at Taylors Arm, New South Wales, adapted from Irish poet Dan Sheahan's original poem "A Pub Without Beer" about the Day Dawn Hotel in Ingham, North Queensland, and set to the tune of Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer". The song gently explores the "devastation" caused to a pub and its community when its beer supply is interrupted.
The song was first performed in public by Parsons in 1954 at the 50th birthday of George Thomas, a resident of Creek Ridge Road, Glossodia. It was performed with an extra verse that was dropped from Slim Dusty's recorded version, because it contained elements of blue humour.
In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "A Pub with No Beer" was ranked number 45.
Australia
In 1957, Slim Dusty's version of "A Pub with No Beer" became the first Australian single to become a gold record and was the biggest-selling record by an Australian at the time. It was the first single by an Australian artist to enter the British charts, reaching number three. The song was also covered by country artist Johnny Ashcroft in 1957. His version was also released in the USA and Canada, and reportedly sold over 100,000 copies in Australia on budget-priced plastic-coated cardboard records.In 1959, Dusty wrote and recorded a sequel, "The Answer To A Pub With No Beer", explaining the reason for the beer delivery truck's failure to arrive and describing the townsmen's efforts to solve the problem. Another sequel, "The Sequel to a Pub with No Beer", shows that the town now has a guaranteed delivery, thanks to air freight.
In May 2001, Australasian Performing Right Association celebrated its 75th anniversary by naming the Best Australian Songs of all time. As decided by a 100 strong industry panel, "A Pub With No Beer" was ranked fifth on the list. In June 2008, the song was included in the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry.
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Europe
Belgian entertainer Bobbejaan Schoepen recorded the song in several languages. His Dutch version debuted in 1959 and his German version in 1960. Both became number one hits in Belgium and in Austria. The song remained in the German charts for 30 weeks, where it reached number six.The song spent 15 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No 3 in 1959.
"A Pub with No Beer" is also the theme song and title of a 1962 Belgian-British film starring Bobbejaan Schoepen, also known as De Ordonnans and At the Drop of a Head. In 1999, the alternative rock band Dead Man Ray wrote a new soundtrack for the film and went on tour with it in the Low Countries. The band also covered the song and released it on one of their albums.