I had intended to post this new ‘Song of the Week’ back three weeks ago to commemorate an anniversary. Or, to be perfectly precise about the date, at ten past three in the morning of 17th April, the day and […]
I admit it–I love the British comic actors, comedians, and film comedies from the 1930s and 1940s. But who else today remembers Tommy Handley, Arthur Askey, Will Hay, George Formby, Frank Randle, Ronald Frankau, Richard ‘Stinker’ Murdoch, Max Miller, Stanley […]
If the melody of the verse in this 1942 song from Arthur Askey sounds vaguely familiar, and if the lyrics seem reminiscent of those of some earlier song, it may be because composer Tolchard Evans and lyricist Ralph Butler drew […]
I’m not sure whether this song falls a little too late in history for Radio Days or a little too early. No matter–we like it anyway, and it’s a good time for us to take a short musical holiday from […]
“Well, I gave my youth to king and country, But what’s my country done for me but sentenced me to misery. I traded my helmet and my parachute For a pair of crutches and a demob suit” An unusual choice […]
https://archive.org/download/BellbottomGeorge/1944BellbottomGeorge.mp4 Maria and I both have a passion for George Formby. In this film, Nazi spies are out to destroy a new submarine killer, the “Firefly”, being developed by the British navy. A hapless waiter named George, after being rejected […]
I’m always fascinated at the way that songs can seem to take on a life of their own, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, as they pass from generation to generation. P.J. Proby’s 1964 recording of Hold […]
“When I was about six years old… my father bought a Radiogram”