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 (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 (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 (5)
Today we make our final visit to the songs of the Music Hall. Where Did You Get That Hat?” is a comic song which was composed and first performed by Joseph J. Sullivan at Miner’s Eighth Avenue Theatre in 1888. It was a great success and has since been performed by many others including J.C. […]
Comic Songs (3)
Today our series moves on to the source of so many comic songs from the Victorian era – The Music Hall. Although it pre-dates Gilbert and Sullivan in its inception, it comes into full flower around the same time as their great comic operas were filling the theatres. Music Hall is a type of British […]
Comic Songs (2)
Our second visit to the works of Gilbert and Sullivan sees us return to Iolanthe for our first offering. Lord Chancellor who is the main protagonist (“The law is the true embodiment”). is appealed to by the peers to decide who will have the hand of Phyllis with whom they are all smitten. The Lord […]
Music of The World (7)
“Begin the Beguine” is a popular song written by Cole Porter. Porter composed the song in 1935 on a Pacific cruise aboard Cunard’s ocean liner Franconia. In October 1935, it was introduced by June Knight in the Broadway musical Jubilee, produced at the Imperial Theatre in New York City. The Beguine is a dance and […]
Music of The World (3)
“Al di là” (“Beyond”) is a song written by Italian composer Carlo Donida and lyricist Mogol, and recorded by Betty Curtis. The song was the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961, performed in Italian by Curtis at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France in March 1961. In the United States, Emilio Pericoli […]