# Ralph McTell
**Ralph McTell** (born Ralph May, 1944, in Croydon, south London) is an English folk singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist who has been a key figure in the British folk revival since the 1960s[1](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0404/1040658-ralph-mctell-streets-of-london/) • [2](https://users.iit.demokritos.gr/~k.palaiologos/thymeli/pdf_files/Rowman%20%26%20Littlefield%20-%20Historical%20Dictionary%20of%20Popular%20Music.pdf). He is best known for "Streets of London", a song first recorded in 1969 that became a British number-two hit single in early 1975, won him an Ivor Novello Award, and has since been recorded by more than 200 artists[1](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0404/1040658-ralph-mctell-streets-of-london/) • [3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography). Known for a virtuoso [fingerstyle guitar](https://www.edgepedia.org/fingerstyle-guitar) technique and a narrative songwriting style, he has performed professionally for more than 50 years[4](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/biography/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Birth name and origin | Born Ralph May, 1944, Croydon, south London; took the stage name McTell in tribute to the American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer Blind Willie McTell[1](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0404/1040658-ralph-mctell-streets-of-london/) |
| Debut | First album *Eight Frames a Second*, 1968[4](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/biography/) |
| Signature song | "Streets of London": on the 1969 album *Spiral Staircase*; re-recorded as a single in late 1974, reaching No. 2 in the UK charts in the first week of 1975 and selling millions worldwide[1](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0404/1040658-ralph-mctell-streets-of-london/) • [5](https://d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net/5f15ec9be3b8e/content/pages/documents/feb-mar-2025.pdf) |
| Awards | Ivor Novello Award for "Streets of London" (1974 release); Lifetime Achievement Award, BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, 2002[4](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/biography/) |
| Cover versions | Over 200 recorded versions, by artists including Cliff Richard, Mary Hopkin, Cleo Laine, Sinead O'Connor, and the Anti-Nowhere League[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography) |
| Main instrument | A Gibson J-45 owned since he was 20, on which he says 90 percent of his writing has been done[6](https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ralph-mctell-on-his-favourite-acoustics-bert-jansch-and-his-hated-first-guitar-635007) |
| Later career | Seven albums between 2000 and 2019 on Leola Music; a farewell tour announced for 2026[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography) • [7](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/home/tour/) |
## Name and early career
May adapted the surname McTell after Blind Willie McTell, the American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and musician whose playing influenced him[1](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0404/1040658-ralph-mctell-streets-of-london/). His first guitar, bought from Kennard's department store in Croydon for five guineas, was a plywood Egmond Freres instrument he later described as an "impossible beast of torture" with untunable machineheads; his mother sent it to him while he was in the Army at [Shropshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/shropshire)[6](https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ralph-mctell-on-his-favourite-acoustics-bert-jansch-and-his-hated-first-guitar-635007).
His recorded debut came in 1968 with *Eight Frames a Second*[4](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/biography/). In 1972 he signed with Warner Bros./[Reprise Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/reprise-records), releasing *Not Till Tomorrow* that year; it appeared in the United States but did not chart, and more than 25 years would pass before another American label released his work[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography).
## "Streets of London" and its aftermath
"Streets of London" was inspired by his experience of traveling and busking around Europe, and first appeared on the 1969 album *Spiral Staircase*[1](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0404/1040658-ralph-mctell-streets-of-london/). The 1974 re-recorded single, released in the UK late that year, rose to number two on the British singles chart in the first week of 1975 and became a worldwide million-seller, also topping the Irish charts[1](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0404/1040658-ralph-mctell-streets-of-london/) • [5](https://d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net/5f15ec9be3b8e/content/pages/documents/feb-mar-2025.pdf).
**Success brought strain.** McTell had wanted to work with a band and develop a more rhythmic, rocky repertoire, and resented that audiences saw his songs as gentle or whimsical[8](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/features/streets/). He was recorded peaking at 90,000 single copies sold in a single day, but the accompanying band tour went badly: Danny Lane, the American drummer, returned to the US "battered and bewildered", and McTell finished the last dates with Rod Clements and Mike Piggott[8](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/features/streets/). In the spring of 1975 he announced his intention to quit touring and withdraw from the music business, decamping to the United States for a year of relative anonymity before returning to the UK for a Christmas benefit concert in Belfast[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography). He later described the quitting as "a sincere attempt to regain my musical integrity" and said he had no regrets[6](https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ralph-mctell-on-his-favourite-acoustics-bert-jansch-and-his-hated-first-guitar-635007).
The song belatedly reached an album when he issued *Streets* in 1975; he had insisted the album keep its boxing-themed concept rather than be named after the hit, a decision he later called an error of judgment that helped sell a compilation of early material for which he received no money[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography) • [8](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/features/streets/).
## Later work
McTell continued recording for Warner Bros. through the 1970s, releasing *Right Side Up* (1976), the live album *Ralph, Albert and Sydney* (1977), and *Slide Away the Screen* (1979)[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography). For most of the 1980s he toured and worked on the children's television show *Alphabet Zoo*; its success led the network to create a second show for him, *Tickle on the Tum*, and both introduced him to new generations of fans[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography). In 1981 he toured with a short-lived group called the GP's, featuring the British folk guitarist [Richard Thompson](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-thompson-musician) and [Fairport Convention](https://www.edgepedia.org/fairport-convention) members Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks; their sole tour was documented on the 1981 live album *Saturday Rolling Around*[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography).
In 1992 he recorded *The Boy with a Note*, an ambitious project about the life and times of the poet [Dylan Thomas](https://www.edgepedia.org/dylan-thomas), released on Leola Music[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography). American visibility returned in the mid-1990s: the independent folk label Kickin' Mule released *Sand in Your Shoes* in 1995, and [Nanci Griffith](https://www.edgepedia.org/nanci-griffith)'s cover of his song "From Clare to Here" appeared on her Grammy-winning *Other Voices, Other Rooms* album in 1993[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography). Leola issued a steady stream of albums over the following two decades, including two collaborations with the folk guitarist Wizz Jones (*About Time*, 2016, and *About Time Too*, 2017), blues and folk covers albums (*National Treasure*, 2002; *Gates of Eden*, 2007), the instrumental set *Sofa Noodling* (2012), and the new-songs collection *Hill of Beans* (2019), produced by [Tony Visconti](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-visconti)[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography).
In 2002 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards[4](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/biography/).
## Guitar style
McTell is primarily a fingerstyle player, occasionally using light-to-medium plectrums[6](https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ralph-mctell-on-his-favourite-acoustics-bert-jansch-and-his-hated-first-guitar-635007). His advice to fingerstyle players, quoted in *Melody Maker* in 1970, was to "play the guitar like a piano, with the bass end for the right-hand thumb and the top string with the right-hand fingers"[9](https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Melody-Maker/70s/70/Melody-Maker-1970-0718.pdf). He has described open tunings, particularly the key of D, as central to his writing, saying that dropping the bottom string to D adds depth and that open D offers "amazing variations in colour and texture"[10](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Beat-Instrumental/Beat-Instrumental-1979-05-S-OCR.pdf).
His principal instrument is the Gibson J-45 acquired at age 20 in a trade-in at Pan Music on Wardour Street; he estimates 90 percent of his writing was done on it and now owns at least six more J-45s[6](https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ralph-mctell-on-his-favourite-acoustics-bert-jansch-and-his-hated-first-guitar-635007). His collection also includes a 1920s Gibson L-1 archtop and a 1932 Martin 000-28 bought in 1961 from a man who heard him busking outside a pub in Poole, Dorset[6](https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ralph-mctell-on-his-favourite-acoustics-bert-jansch-and-his-hated-first-guitar-635007). He cites the technique of the blues players Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Arthur Blake as a continuing study, and although a longtime friend of [Bert Jansch](https://www.edgepedia.org/bert-jansch) and [John Renbourn](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-renbourn), he has said that, playing-wise, he learned nothing from them, calling himself "just not in their class"[6](https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ralph-mctell-on-his-favourite-acoustics-bert-jansch-and-his-hated-first-guitar-635007) • [11](https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Beat-Instrumental/Beat-Instrumental-1975-02-S-OCR.pdf).
## Reception
Reviewers have described McTell's compositions as romantic, poetic reflections on working-class life, delivered in an unhurried manner over delicate fingerpicking, and his story songs as works of memory with a fable-like quality[12](https://www.allmusic.com/album/from-clare-to-here-the-songs-of-ralph-mctell-mw0000185856). Robin Denselow, reviewing the four-CD retrospective *The Journey: Recordings 1965-2006* in *The Guardian*, wrote that the hit made McTell "a victim of his own success", consigning him to a Radio 2 audience and unfashionability, while noting his capacity for "dazzling, often rapid-fire guitar work" and a strong voice capable of blues, country, and Dylan material[13](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/oct/06/popandrock.folk). A 1979 *Washington Post* review grouped him with Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn as guitarists sharing "a common faith of the power of understated folk music"[14](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/12/03/folk-guitarists/676b12c4-34e1-400d-8002-3df26bacade1/).
## Recent years
McTell marked his 80th birthday in 2024[5](https://d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net/5f15ec9be3b8e/content/pages/documents/feb-mar-2025.pdf). In 2025 he undertook his most extensive Irish tour to date, playing 20 shows over four weeks, despite a prostate cancer diagnosis he has used his platform to raise awareness of early detection[15](https://www.rte.ie/culture/2025/0416/1506329-something-for-the-weekend-ralph-mctells-cultural-picks/). His website lists a farewell tour, "Somewhere Down the Road", scheduled across Australia, Ireland, and the UK in 2026, along with a December 2026 London date at Cadogan Hall[7](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/home/tour/) • [16](https://cadoganhall.com/whats-on/ralph-mctell/).
## References
1. [Ralph McTell Streets Of London, RTÉ Archives](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/0404/1040658-ralph-mctell-streets-of-london/)
2. [Historical Dictionary of Popular Music, Rowman & Littlefield](https://users.iit.demokritos.gr/~k.palaiologos/thymeli/pdf_files/Rowman%20%26%20Littlefield%20-%20Historical%20Dictionary%20of%20Popular%20Music.pdf)
3. [Ralph McTell Biography, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-p2073/biography)
4. [Biography, ralphmctell.co.uk](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/biography/)
5. [Musings: A few random thoughts about Streets of London (Feb-Mar 2025 magazine PDF)](https://d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net/5f15ec9be3b8e/content/pages/documents/feb-mar-2025.pdf)
6. [Ralph McTell on his favourite acoustics, Bert Jansch and his hated first guitar, MusicRadar (2016)](https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ralph-mctell-on-his-favourite-acoustics-bert-jansch-and-his-hated-first-guitar-635007)
7. [Tours and Shows, ralphmctell.co.uk](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/home/tour/)
8. [Streets, ralphmctell.co.uk](https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/features/streets/)
9. [Melody Maker, 18 July 1970, p. 27, worldradiohistory.com](https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Melody-Maker/70s/70/Melody-Maker-1970-0718.pdf)
10. [Beat Instrumental, May 1979, worldradiohistory.com](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Beat-Instrumental/Beat-Instrumental-1979-05-S-OCR.pdf)
11. [Beat Instrumental, February 1975, worldradiohistory.com](https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Beat-Instrumental/Beat-Instrumental-1975-02-S-OCR.pdf)
12. [From Clare to Here: The Songs of Ralph McTell review, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/from-clare-to-here-the-songs-of-ralph-mctell-mw0000185856)
13. [Ralph McTell, The Journey: Recordings 1965-2006, The Guardian (2006)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/oct/06/popandrock.folk)
14. [Folk Guitarists, The Washington Post (1979)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/12/03/folk-guitarists/676b12c4-34e1-400d-8002-3df26bacade1/)
15. [Something for the Weekend: Ralph McTell's cultural picks, RTÉ Culture (2025)](https://www.rte.ie/culture/2025/0416/1506329-something-for-the-weekend-ralph-mctells-cultural-picks/)
16. [Ralph McTell, Cadogan Hall](https://cadoganhall.com/whats-on/ralph-mctell/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musicians and ensembles › Individual musical biographies › Blues, folk, and roots musicians › Contemporary folk singer-songwriters › 1970s to 1990s singer-songwriters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license