Billy Connolly is a Scottish actor, retired comedian, artist, writer, musician, and presenter. He is sometimes known, especially in his homeland, by the Scots nickname the Big Yin (“the Big One”). Known for his idiosyncratic and often improvised observational comedy, frequently including strong language, Connolly has topped many UK polls as the greatest stand-up comedian of all time. In 2022 he received the Bafta Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Connolly’s trade, in the early 1960s, was that of a welder the Glasgow shipyards, but he gave it up towards the end of the decade to pursue a career as a folk singer. He first sang in the folk rock band The Humblebums with Gerry Rafferty and Tam Harvey, with whom he stayed until 1974, before beginning singing as a solo artist.
In the early 1970s, Connolly made the transition from folk singer with a comedic persona to fully-fledged comedian, for which he is now best known. In 1972, he made his theatrical debut, at the Cottage Theatre in Cumbernauld, with a revue called Connolly’s Glasgow Flourish. He also played the Edinburgh Fringe. In 1972, Connolly’s first solo album, Billy Connolly Live!, was produced, with a mixture of comedic songs and short monologues.
Connolly continued to grow in popularity in the UK. In 1975, he signed with Polydor Records. Connolly continued to release live albums and he also recorded several comedic songs that enjoyed commercial success as novelty singles including a parody of Tammy Wynette’s song “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.” (which he performed on TOTP in December 1975) A comedy song, it reached No. 1 for one week in November 1975, and was one of the few songs of its genre to reach this milestone. “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.” has a similar theme to Wynette’s original in that the events in the song lead to a couple divorcing, however in the parody, the words are spelled out to withhold the truth from a dog rather than a child as in Wynette’s version, and the divorce is sparked by a riotous visit to a veterinarian that results in the husband being bitten by both the dog and his wife.
The following year Billy Connolly appeared in the UK Singles Chart with his secong single “No Chance”. It was a parody of the song “No Charge” which had originally been released in 1974 by Melba Montgomery. Connolly’s version reached No. 24 in the UK in July of 1976 and spent 5 weeks on the charts. In 1979 he released another parody song. This was his version of the Village People’s “In the Navy” retitled “In the Brownies”. The song spent seven weeks in the UK singles chart but only managed a brief entry into the Top 40 with one week at No.38. Apart from releasing the theme tune to the TV series ‘Super Gran’ in 1985 which was also a minor hit, Connolly began to drop singing from his regular act from the end of the 1970’s.
