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For the American lyricist who died in 1964, see Johnny Burke (lyricist)

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Johnny Burke (1851 - 1930) was a Newfoundland songwriter and musician. He was nicknamed the 'Bard of Prescott Street'. He wrote many popular songs that artists in the 1930s and 1940s released.

Burke was the son of a well-known sealing captain. He worked as a poet, actor, singer and playwright, but is best known for writing songs about contemporary events and personalities, songs that revealed Burke's sharp eye for detail and deft touch with wit and satire.

Burke also wrote and staged musical comedies. His first, The Battle Of Foxtrap was an immediate sensation when it opened at the Total Abstinence Hall in 1881. Later shows include The Runaway Girl From Fogo, The Topsail Geisha and Cotton's Patch.

Burke marketed his songs on "broadsheets", printed pages of lyrics that sold for two to five cents a copy. He became the most popular member of a busy songwriting community that also included T.M. Lannigan, Michael Power, Johnny Quigley, Johnny Quill and James Murphy. Several of his songs have endured to become standards of the Newfoundland repertoire, still recorded and sung today.

Popular songs by Burke include:

• The Night Paddy Murphy Died
• Cod Liver Oil
• Murphy Broke The Pledge
• Who Shipped The Moonshine To St. John's
• The Spring Maurice Crotty Fought The Old Dog-hood
• The Kelligrews Soiree
• The Trinity Cake
• Never Been There Before
• Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen
• Excursion Around The Bay
• Little Boneen
• Old Brown's Daughter
• The Flemings Of Torbay
• The Hat My Father Wore
• The Landfall Of Cabot
• The Sealers Gained The Strike
• The Valley Of Kilbride