As we leave the 1950’s with our final batch of songs, it must also be noted that is during this period the the ‘Comic or Comedic Song’ also starts being referred to as the ‘Novelty Song’. The intention is obviously to pigeonhole such songs (whether they in fact are funny or not) as slight abberations […]
Comic Songs (17)
Our purveyor of comedic songs today comes from an unlikely source. Bernard Bresslaw was an English actor. He is best known as a member of the Carry On film franchise. Bresslaw also worked on television and stage, did recordings and wrote a series of poetry. During the late 1950’s he suprisingly had a series of […]
Comic Songs (16)
Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo. Lyricist, actor and singer Michael Flanders and composer and pianist Donald Swann collaborated in writing and performing comic songs. They first worked together in a school revue in 1939 and eventually wrote more than 100 comic songs together. Between 1956 and 1967, Flanders and Swann performed their […]
Comic Songs (15)
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from May to September 1951, was titled Crazy People; subsequent series had the title The Goon Show. The show’s chief creator and […]
Comic Songs (14)
Today, we move into the 1950’s for our selection of comedic songs. We begin with a collection of individual songs performed by a variety of performers. “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” is a novelty song composed in 1944 by Fred Heatherton, a songwriting pseudonym for a collaboration of English songwriters Harold Elton Box […]
Comic Songs (13)
Today we feature individual comedic songs by a variety of artistes from the 1940’s. “Everything Stops For Tea” As always, nothing in music is ever that simple, and a song about England’s favourite beverage has only the most tenuous connection with it. “Everything Stops For Tea” was composed by the New York born Maurice Sigler, […]
Comic Songs (12)
As we leave the 1930’s and move into the 1940’s, we are featuring two comedic artistes the careers of whom begin the former decade and blossom in the latter. Today our post features Arthur Askey and Tommy Trinder. Arthur Askey, was an English comedian and actor. Askey was known for his short stature and distinctive […]
Comic Songs (11)
Our final featured comedic artiste from the 1930’s is Gracie Fields. She was an English actress, singer, comedian and star of cinema and music hall who was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and the highest paid film star in the world in 1937. She was known affectionately as […]
Comic Songs (10)
One the major musical figures in 1930’s was George Formby, an English actor, singer-songwriter and comedian who became known to a worldwide audience through his films of the 1930s and 1940s. On stage, screen and record he sang light, comical songs, usually playing the ukulele or banjolele, and became the United Kingdom’s highest-paid entertainer. Born […]
Comic Songs (9)
Moving now into the 1930’s we will be featuring some famous names and perhaps some less well known ones. So today we celebrate the comedic songs of Leslie Sarony. Sarony was a British entertainer, singer, actor and songwriter. He was born in Surbiton the son of William Henry Frye, an Irish-born artist and photographer, and […]