Background
MacManus was born on Conway Street, Birkenhead, to Mabel and Pat McManus.
MacManus was born on Conway Street, Birkenhead, to Mabel and Pat McManus.
He attended Saint Anselm"s College.
He performed with Joe Loss and his orchestra. He is the father of Elvis Costello. He later adapted his surname slightly, to MacManus.
Prior to joining Joe Loss, he had his own band, which sometimes played at the Mecca Locarno dance hall in Leeds.
He later joined Joe Loss in March 1955. He wrote and sang "Patsy Girl", a 1964 single credited to Ross McManus and the Joe Loss Blue Beats.
The song was featured on the "Fathers" episode of Bob Dylan"s radio series, Theme Time Radio Hour, in 2006. In 1970 he recorded a version of The Beatles" song "The Long and Winding Road" under the pseudonym of Day Costello, which spent 17 weeks in the Australian charts, peaking at number 16.
MacManus was responsible for the music and vocals from the R. White"s Lemonade television advertisement theme song, "Secret Lemonade Drinker", on which Costello plays the drums, and sang backing vocals.
In 1975, he wrote and sang a number of songs for the soundtrack to the British film Secrets of a Superstud. He played the trumpet on two of Elvis Costello"s albums: on Out of Our Idiot (1987) the song "A Town Called Big Nothing", credited to the MacManus Gang and originally recorded for the film Straight to Hell, and on Mighty Like a Rose (1991) the song "Invasion Hit Parade". His 1972 album of cover versions of Elvis Presley songs, Elvis Presley"s Golden Hits Sung By Big Ross & The Memphis Sound, was reissued on Civil Defense in 2008 as Elvis" Dad Sings Elvis.
MacManus married Lillian Alda Ablett in 1952.
The couple later divorced. Their son Declan, better known as Elvis Costello, was born in 1954.
Ronan is lead singer in the popular London Irish band The BibleCode Sundays and Ronan and Ruairi also perform together as The MacManus Brothers.