Singing

This may be a bit wrong but...........in WHOS THAT MAN WITH NORAH BATTY THEN? Compo is skipping as part of his "training".
He sings ..One ,two three a lary, I went out with Mary , don't forget to feed the canary ,Then you'll get a sweetie!

...The words may be slightly wrong but you get the gist. :-[
 
dick said:
This may be a bit wrong but...........in WHOS THAT MAN WITH NORAH BATTY THEN? Compo is skipping as part of his "training".
He sings ..One ,two three a lary, I went out with Mary , don't forget to feed the canary ,Then you'll get a sweetie!

...The words may be slightly wrong but you get the gist. :-[
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Dick it wasn't.......

Auntie Mary had a canary
up the leg of her drawers
she pulled a string
to hear it sing
and down popped Santa Claus

was it ??? :22:
 
dick said:
This may be a bit wrong but...........in WHOS THAT MAN WITH NORAH BATTY THEN? Compo is skipping as part of his "training".
He sings ..One ,two three a lary, I went out with Mary , don't forget to feed the canary ,Then you'll get a sweetie!

...The words may be slightly wrong but you get the gist. :-[
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You did very well, Dick. According to the scripts on-line the words were:
One, two, three-allairy;
My ball's down the airy;
Don't forget to give it to Mary;
Then you'll get a sweetie.
 
Gough sings drunkenly, "Though she's a factory girl, Wearing her factory clothes, I'm the sort of fellow FOR the little Yorkshire Rose" in Happy Anniversary Gough and Jessie.
 
Captain Zero sings "I fly through the air with the greatest of ease; With me elbows well in and me hands on me knees; I fly through the air and I land in the net; I might, pray, be dead but I haven't done yet, in That's Not Captain Zero.
 
In THE GLORY HOLE , Foggy tells Compo he can be in charge of entertainment.

Compo immediately breaks into................"There was a man ,he had a wife and she was double jointed" accompanying himself on an imaginary banjo!

Foggy says "No,...... entertainment!!" :20:
 
At the start of Dream Acres Seymour is mending Compo's trouser's, as he does this Compo is singing i can't think what it was. Anyone know?
 
gill said:
At the start of Dream Acres Seymour is mending Compo's trouser's, as he does this Compo is singing i can't think what it was. Anyone know?
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I sure understand why you didn't remember it. I couldn't get the words by listening to it - had to put the DVD in with the captions on.

♫ No more to yon green banks will I take thee
♪ With pleasure for to rest thyself and view the land
♫ But I will take thee to yon green gardens
♪ Where the pretty, pretty flowers grow

Then I went online to verify the words and found out this is known as the "Holmfirth Anthem." It is know throughout England and especially Yorkshire by several different names, but the most common is the Holmfirth Anthem. More background:

Many sources state the song was the work of Joe Perkin (1809-1868),[SUP][3][/SUP] a choirmaster at Holmfirth in the mid 19th century.[SUP][[/SUP] The song retained enormous popularity in Holmfirth well into the 20th century, partly through being sung en masse at the end of yearly town concerts - the "Holmfirth Feast Sing", held in Victoria Park a week before Whitsun between 1882 and 1990[SUP][7][/SUP] - leading to it becoming known as the "Holmfirth Anthem". It is still often sung informally in villages in the Holme Valley area, although it is also found in the East Riding. It is a popular choice at village carol "sings" at Christmas, or at hunt meets in farming districts.

The process of adaption and shortening of the original slip-ballad has left the text with a number of structural peculiarities. A number of variants exist, with different Yorkshire villages usually having their own particular texts. A common version from the Holmfirth area, with some other local variants, is as follows:
Abroad for pleasure as I was a-walking
It was one summer summer's evening clear
There I beheld a most beautiful damsel
Lamenting for her shepherd dear
Lamenting for her shepherd dear [variant: "shepherd swain"]
The dearest evening that e'er I beheld [variant: "The fairest evening that e're I beheld thee"]
Was ever ever ever with the lass I adore [variant: "evermore with the lad I adore"]
Wilt thou go fight yon French and Spaniards?
Wilt thou leave me thus my dear?
Wilt thou leave me thus my dear?
No more to yon green banks will I take thee
With pleasure for to rest thyself and view the lambs [variants:"rest myself" and "view the lands"][SUP][8][/SUP]
But I will take thee to yon green garden
Where those pratty flowers grow
Where those pratty, pratty flowers grow
"Pratty" is simply a Yorkshire dialect pronunciation of "pretty", but is almost invariably written (and pronounced) "pratty".
In performance, each stanza is usually sung with a soloist singing the two first lines, with the ensemble repeating the two lines in four-part harmony: the soloist then sings the last three lines of the stanza (strictly two lines, with the last repeated), with the ensemble repeating them in harmony. The final three lines of the last stanza are often given an extra repeat, or occasionally several.
 
Thankyou so much for finding that out for me me2. It was very kind of you.
 
In Beware of the Oglethorpe, Compo makes a puppet out of his knee and sings, " Oh, the sun has got his hat on! Hip, hip, hip, hooray! ♫ The sun has got his hat on and he's coming to out to play."
 
In one of the early series ,Compo and Cleggy do a "Russian dance" . Clegg on a chair in the café starts singing OCHI-CHORNYA? as he jumps down (frightening a customer in the process):wink:
 
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dick said:
In one of the early series ,Compo and Cleggy do a "Russian dance" . Clegg on a chair in the café starts singing OCHI-CHORNYA? as he jumps down (frightening a customer in the process):wink:
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I absolutely love that scene. It's in Jubilee.[TABLE="width: 331"]
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I find myself wondering where the songs came from. As the writer, did Clarke specify what should be sung? That could be the case with known songs, but there might be legal or other reasons that would cause the choice of song to be changed. And some of the songs clearly were made up. Who wrote those? The obvious answer would be Ronnie Hazlehurst, but Bill Owen was also a successful song writer so maybe he wrote some of the songs he performed.
 
Don't know why but this was buzzing around in my brain when I "surfaced " this morning ............Howard singing "Dream when you're feeling blue"! And the others backing him with doo-wahs! ;D
 
Sarkus said:
I find myself wondering where the songs came from. As the writer, did Clarke specify what should be sung? That could be the case with known songs, but there might be legal or other reasons that would cause the choice of song to be changed. And some of the songs clearly were made up. Who wrote those? The obvious answer would be Ronnie Hazlehurst, but Bill Owen was also a successful song writer so maybe he wrote some of the songs he performed.
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I have wondered about many of the songs too. I'm sure there are a few where they are just made up for the scene, such as when Clegg and Compo did their little 'Russian' dance and song in the cafe, or when Compo sang in the library "I'm the biggest Isometrics in the world" or Hobbo's rendition of "Let's All Do the Jam Roly Poly.

But when I looked up the words for many of them on the internet, I found they were real songs. In "Beware the Oglethorpe", you might think the song Compo sang when he turned his knee into a puppet was made up, but it was a real song, "The Sun Has Got His Hat On" recorded in 1932 by Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra. The song Compo sang on the back of the trailer in "The Heavily Reinforced Bottom" as well as many others were also published songs. While it's hard to say who chose them, it seems likely it was Roy Clarke since they always fit in the scene so well, but of course that's open to debate. He could have asked for ideas or suggestions, but I feel sure he would have been the one to make the final choice.

Bill Owen did write one of the songs, "Compo Has Gone and Lost His Wellies." But it was not written for the episode. It was written and published in 1981/82 - 15 years before it was used in LOTSW for "Extra, Extra." So it's hard to say if Roy Clarke knew of it and used it, or if Bill Owen suggested it.

It is highly probable that Roy Clarke chose the words of some old songs or poems and had Ronnie Hazlehurst create a suitable tune for it, such as "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck" used when Compo sang and danced on the road in "Downhill Racer." But I wouldn't be surprised to find that Compo improvised that one either.

I wish there was a way to find out, but I don't think that will ever happen.
 
me2 said:
I have wondered about many of the songs too. I'm sure there are a few where they are just made up for the scene, such as when Clegg and Compo did their little 'Russian' dance and song in the cafe, or when Compo sang in the library "I'm the biggest Isometrics in the world" or Hobbo's rendition of "Let's All Do the Jam Roly Poly.

It is highly probable that Roy Clarke chose the words of some old songs or poems and had Ronnie Hazlehurst create a suitable tune for it, such as "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck" used when Compo sang and danced on the road in "Downhill Racer." But I wouldn't be surprised to find that Compo improvised that one either.

I wish there was a way to find out, but I don't think that will ever happen.
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The Boy on The burning Deck had its origins(I think) in music hall and /or the army .As did "There was a man who had a wife ,and she was double jointed" "Isometrics " was a take from the Gracie Fields song "BIGGEST ASPIDESTRA IN THE WORLD." The one for the Russian dance is/was an old one called OCHI-CHORNYA (still unsure of the spelling) Sometimes spelled OCHI CHERNYE It apparently means DARK EYES. :o
 
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in series 9 in Set The People Free Compo sings "Won't You Come Into My Parlor Said The Spider To The Fly". Is this an actual song and if so what's the name of the song please and by whom?
 
Hey Captain, thanks for the reply. But I'm not too sure, cause been looking it up and the words were not the same. He sings something like 'you in your vest and that's what I like the best' and other lines like that which wasn't in the poem. Unless it's something they made up? I really likes the way he sang the few lines of that and would love to hear the whole song. Or maybe they just added some lines to it?
 
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