[Responding to Tower Park F&B, Brian Cant, Simple Arts move…]
Apropos of nothing – Brian Cant was my neighbour’s wife’s brother! I don’t have Lou Busch’s “Zambezi” – but I looked THAT up as well and – hey – it’s rather GOOD! Here it is…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cucI2atnxyY
Again, apropos of nothing – I just discovered that Lou Busch worked with Allan Sherman on many of his hits.
Only fogeys as old as me will REMEMBER Allan. In the early Sixties, he was responsible for a plethora of silly songs – many based on popular songs of the time (like his “A Waste Of Money” – based on “A Taste Of Honey”).
But copyright probs forced him to use public domain melodies, which resulted in his biggest hit – “Hello Mudduh! Hello Fadduh!” – being set to the famous bit of Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance Of The Hours”.
I was reminded of this when recalling an incident in “assembly” at my junior school. It was 1963 – and the headmaster (a bloke who looked a lot like Leslie Philips – but wasn’t) played the classic and asked the kids if they knew what it was called.
Now remember – these kids were aged between 8 and 11. Thus there was a silence – eventually broken by a little voice at the front which said, “It’s called ‘Hello Mudduh! Hello Fadduh!'”
Everyone fell about laughing and a classmate standing with me at the back (we were 10) said, “Oh no – that was my little brother – he HAD to say THAT!”
But what struck me – all these years later – was the fact that in England, in 1963, a bunch of 8-11-year-olds KNEW the record was a classic – and had only been USED by Sherman.
Today’s ignorant oiks would NOT have laughed – thinking the kid was RIGHT.
By the way – if you have no idea what I’m talking about, hit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Hx_X84LC0
Yes, YouTube does sometimes screw things up. Audio sync, for example. Of course, this uploader used a BSR Monarch to play the piece on (or dubbed a proper recording onto a video of it playing. I’ve done that, with a record playing on my jukebox mech).