Daily Sparkle CD - A Review of Famous Songs of the Past

‘Fascinating Facts’ October 2018

Track 1 My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean Although the song's origin is uncertain, its subject may be Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie’). After the defeat of the Prince at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 his Jacobite supporters could have sung the tune in his honour. Thanks to the ambiguity of the term "bonnie", which can refer to a woman as well as to a man, they could pretend it was a love song. In 1881 sheet music for "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me” was published. People had been requesting the song at sheet music stores in the 1870s, and the song became a big hit.

Mitchell "Mitch" Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was prominent in the American music industry. Miller was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, working as a musician, singer, conductor, record producer and record company executive. Miller was one of the most influential people in American popular music during the 1950s and early 1960s, both as the head of A&R at Columbia Records and as a best-selling recording artist with an NBC television series, Sing Along with Mitch.

Track 2 Dashing Away with a Smoothing Iron by Dws Chorale Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron is a traditional English folk song written in the 19th century about a housewife carrying out her linen chores. In 1973 the tune was used by the English composer John Rutter for the fourth movement of his Suite for Strings under the title ‘Dashing Away’.

Dws Chorale is a one man choir with all the sounds put together by one man in one small space with one microphone, to create the effect of a whole choir. He uses his own voice which is countertenor.

Track 3 Autumn Leaves by Nat King Cole Autumn Leaves is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French song "Les feuilles mortes" (literally "The Dead Leaves") with music by Hungarian-French composer Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert. The American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics in 1947 and Jo Stafford was among the first to perform this version. "Autumn Leaves" became a pop standard and a jazz standard in both languages, both as an instrumental and with a singer. On December 24, 1950, French singer Edith Piaf sang both French and English versions of this song on the radio programme The Big Show, hosted by .

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black Americans to host a television . Cole fought racism all his life and rarely performed in segregated venues. In 1948, Cole purchased a house in an all-white neighbourhood of . The Ku Klux Klan, still active in Los Angeles well into the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn. Members of the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any undesirables moving in. Cole retorted, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain." Cole maintained worldwide popularity throughout his life and even since his death.

Track 4 When The Saints Go Marching In When the Saints Go Marching In is a Belgian Christian hymn that has taken on certain aspects of folk music. The precise origins of the song are not known. Though it originated as a American gospel hymn, today people are more likely to hear it played by a jazz band.

Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as a cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a big influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly recognisable deep and distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing (vocalising using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics). Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin-colour was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man.

Track 5 Bell Bottom Blues Bell Bottom Blues became Alma Cogan’s first hit in April 1954.

Alma Cogan (19 May 1932 – 26 October 1966) was an English singer of music in the 1950s and early 1960s. She was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era. In 1953, while recording "If I Had A Golden Umbrella", she broke into a giggle, and then played up the effect on later recordings. Soon she was dubbed "The girl with the giggle in her voice". Cogan was one of the first UK record artists to appear frequently on television, where her powerful voice could be showcased along with her bubbly personality and dramatic costumes. These hooped skirts with sequins and figure-hugging tops were reputedly designed by herself and never worn twice. She never married but lived with her widowed mother in Kensington in a lavishly decorated ground-floor flat, which became a legendary party-venue. Regular visitors included Princess Margaret, Noël Coward, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Michael Caine, Frankie Vaughan, and a host of other celebrities.

Track 6 Here in My heart Here in My Heart is a popular song, written by Pat Genaro, Lou Levinson, and Bill Borrelli, and published in 1952. Here in My Heart remained in the top position for nine weeks in the , setting a record for the longest consecutive run at number one, a record which, over 50 years on, has only been beaten by five other tracks.

Al Martino (born Jasper Cini, October 7, 1927 – October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid-1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop crooners",[2] and also became well known as an actor, particularly for his role as singer Johnny Fontane in The Godfather. However, his success also attracted the attention of the Mafia, which ordered him to pay $75,000. After making a down-payment to appease them, he moved to Britain and continued to perform and record successfully in the UK. He later returned to the USA. One of his biggest hits was "Spanish Eyes. Martino's run of chart success faded after the mid-1960s.

Track 7 We Plough the Fields & Scatter This is an English hymn commonly associated with harvest festival. The hymn was originally German, by poet Matthias Claudius, 'Wir pflügen und wir streuen' published in 1782, and set to music in 1800. It was translated into English in 1861. It is amongst the most performed of hymns in the United Kingdom.

Helen Beaumont A popular modern singer.

Track 8 Goodbye Dolly Grey Goodbye, Dolly Gray is a song by Will D. Cobb (lyrics) and Paul Barnes (music). Popularised as a Boer War anthem, it was written during the earlier Spanish-American War. It has featured in many plays and films; Coward's Cavalcade and the movies Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Alfie (1966) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).

Florrie Forde (1875-1940), music hall artist, was born on 16 August 1875 in Fitzroy, Melbourne. She first appeared as a singer in a vaudeville programme. On August Bank Holiday 1897, she made her first appearances in at three music halls—the South London Palace, the Pavilion and the Oxford—in the one evening, singing You Know and I Know. Immediately booked for three years on the circuit, she never looked back. With clear diction, and a commanding stage presence, she had the ability to select songs with catchy choruses and to lead an audience in singing them. Her early successes included Down at the Old Bull and Bush in 1904, which became a music hall anthem. Other numbers that she made popular and recorded included Pack Up Your Troubles, It's a Long Way to Tipperary, Oh! Oh! Antonio, Hold Your Hand Out Naughty Boy, Goodbye-ee and Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly.

Track 9 Did You Ever See a Dream Walking? Is a popular song, introduced by Art Jarrett in the 1933 film Sitting Pretty. The music was written by Harry Revel, the lyrics by Mack Gordon. The song was originally published in 1933.

Harry Lillis ‘Bing’ Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation. A multimedia star, from 1934 to 1954 was a leader in record sales, radio ratings and motion picture hits. His early career coincided with technical recording innovations; this allowed him to develop a laid-back, intimate singing style that influenced many of the popular male singers who followed him, including , , and Dean Martin. Crosby boosted American G.I. morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII.

Track 10 Hey There Hey There is a show tune from the musical play The Pajama Game, written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. It was published in 1954. It was introduced by John Raitt in the original production. It was subsequently recorded by a number of artists.

Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" In 1954, she starred, along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen, in the movie White Christmas. Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression and drug addiction, but revived in 1977, when her Bing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. Clooney suffered for much of her life from bipolar disorder. She continued recording until her death in 2002.

Track 11 Lavender Blue Lavender Blue is an English folk song and nursery rhyme dating to the seventeenth century, which has been recorded in various forms.

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theatre, television, and motion pictures. Ives expanded his appearances in films during the fifties and his movie credits include East of Eden and ‘Big Daddy’ in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In the 1960s Ives began singing with greater frequency.

Track 12 I Can’t Stop Loving You I Can't Stop Loving You is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it in December 1957

Donald Eugene Gibson (April 3, 1928 – November 17, 2003) was an American songwriter and country musician. He penned such country standards as "Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjoyed a string of country hits from 1957 into the early 1970s. Don Gibson was born in North Carolina, into a poor working-class family, and he dropped out of school in the second grade. In 1957, he went to Nashville to work with producer Chet Atkins and record "Oh Lonesome Me" and "I Can't Stop Loving You". It was a double-sided hit. Gibson recorded a series of successful duets with Dottie West in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A talented songwriter, Gibson was nicknamed The Sad Poet because he frequently wrote songs that told of loneliness and lost love. His song "I Can't Stop Loving You", has been recorded by over 700 artists, most notably by Ray Charles in 1962.

Track 13 Mull Of Kintyre Mull of Kintyre is a song written by Paul McCartney and Denny Laine and performed by Wings. The song was written in tribute to the picturesque Kintyre peninsula in Scotland, where McCartney has owned High Park Farm since 1966. The song was Wings' biggest hit in the United Kingdom where it became the 1977 Christmas number one.

Foster and Allen began back in the 1970s when Foster and Allen were playing in country music bands around Ireland. In 1975, they formed a small group and went over to the UK to work the Irish music venues on a short tour.

Track 14 Goodnight Irene Goodnight Irene is a 20th century American folk standard, first recorded by American blues musician Huddie 'Lead Belly' Ledbetter in 1933. The lyrics tell of the singer's troubled past with his love, Irene, and express his sadness and frustration.

James Travis ‘Jim’ Reeves (August 20, 1923 – July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville sound (a mixture of older country-style music with elements of popular music). Known as "Gentleman Jim", his songs continued to chart for years after his death. Reeves died at age 40 in the crash of a private airplane.

Track 15 Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me) is a popular song that was made famous by Glenn Miller and by during World War II. Its lyrics are the words of two young lovers who pledge their fidelity while one of them is away serving in the war.

The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (1911 - 1967), soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews (1916 - 1995), and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews (1918). Throughout their long career, the sisters sold well over 75 million records. Their 1941 hit Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy can be considered an early example of rhythm and blues or jump blues. The Andrews Sisters' harmonies and songs are still influential today.

Track 16 Memories Are Made of This Is a popular song written by Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr, and Frank Miller in 1955. The most popular version of the song was recorded by Dean Martin. It was his only UK number one hit, topping the UK Singles Chart on 17 February 1956, and remaining at the top for four weeks.

Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th Century, Martin was nicknamed the "King of Cool" due to his seemingly effortless charisma and self- assuredness. Martin was a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television. Martin's relaxed, warbling crooning voice earned him dozens of hit singles including his signature songs Memories Are Made of This, That's Amore, Everybody Loves Somebody, You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You and Volare. For three decades, Martin was among the most popular acts in Las Vegas. Martin sang and was one of the smoothest comics in the business. In 1965, Martin launched his weekly comedy- variety series, The Dean Martin Show, which exploited his public image as a lazy, carefree boozer. There he perfected his famous laid-back persona of the half- drunk crooner suavely hitting on beautiful women with hilarious remarks.

Track 17 Hole In The Ground The Hole in the Ground was a comic song written by Myles Rudge and composed by . When recorded by in 1962, it was a hit in the UK charts. The song is about a dispute between a workman digging a hole and an officious busybody wearing a bowler hat. This exemplifies English class conflict of the era and Cribbins switches between a working class Cockney accent, in which he drops his aitches, and a middle class accent for the gentleman in the bowler hat.

Bernard Cribbins, OBE (born 29 December 1928) is an English character actor, voice-over artist and musical comedian with a career spanning over seventy years. He came to prominence in films of the 1960s, and has been in work consistently since his professional debut in the mid-1950s. Cribbins is particularly well known to British audiences as the narrator in The Wombles, a BBC children's television programme that ran for 40 episodes between 1973 and 1975. He also recorded several successful novelty records in the early 1960s and was a regular and prolific performer on the BBC's Jackanory from 1966 to 1991. Having appeared as Tom Campbell, a companion to Dr. Who in a 1966 feature film, Cribbins may be best known for his role, four decades later, as Wilfred Mott, a companion to television's Tenth Doctor.

Track 18 Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner Hubert Gregg (1914 –2004) was a BBC broadcaster, writer and stage actor and on seeing the German Doodlebugs flying over London, composed the song "Maybe It's Because I'm A Londoner", which became a hit and London folk anthem in 1947.

Bud Flanagan OBE (1896 –1968) was a popular English music hall and vaudeville entertainer from the 1930s until the 1960s. Flanagan was famous as a wartime entertainer and his achievements were recognised when he was awarded the OBE in 1959. is best remembered as part of a double act with , . Flanagan and Allen's songs featured the same, usually gentle humour for which the duo were known in their live performances, and during the Second World War reflected the experiences of ordinary people during wartime. Flanagan's last recording was "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler?", recorded shortly before his death in 1968 and for which he was paid '100 guineas' for his work.

Track 19 Mr Sandman Mr. Sandman is a popular song written by Pat Ballard which was published in 1954 and first recorded in that year by The Chordettes. The song's lyrics convey a request to "Mr. Sandman" to "bring me a dream".

The Chordettes were a female popular singing quartet, usually singing a cappella, and specializing in traditional popular music. They formed in 1946. Originally they sang folk music in the style of The Weavers, but eventually changed to a harmonizing style of the type known as barbershop harmony or close harmony. They also had a hit in 1958 with "Lollipop".

Track 20 I Know Where I’m Going Is a traditional Scottish or Irish ballad about a woman pining for her "bonnie" lover Johnny.

The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of . The band was formed in November 1948 by Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and Pete Seeger.They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and sold millions of records at the height of their popularity. Their hard-driving string-band style inspired the commercial "folk boom" that followed them in the 1950s and 1960s, including such performing groups as The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Rooftop Singers and Bob Dylan.

Track 21 Get Me To The Church On Time Get Me to the Church on Time is a song composed by Frederick Loewe, with lyrics written by Alan Jay Lerner for the 1956 musical My Fair Lady, where it was introduced by Stanley Holloway. My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so that she may pass as a well-born lady.

Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer and poet. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. He was also renowned for his comic monologues and songs. Born in London, Holloway made early stage appearances before the First World War. After the war he had his first major theatre success in Kissing Time Characters from his monologues such as Sam Small, invented by Holloway, and Albert Ramsbottom, were absorbed into popular British culture. By the 1930s, he was in demand to star in variety, pantomime and musical comedy, including several revues.

Track 22 Baby Love "Baby Love" is a song recorded by the American music group the Supremes in 1964 for their second studio album titled, Where Did Our Love Go. It was written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier– Holland. It is considered one of the most popular songs of the late 20th century.

The Supremes were an American female singing group and the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and are, to date, America's most successful vocal group with 12 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. During the mid-1960s, the Supremes achieved mainstream success with Ross as lead singer and Holland- Dozier-Holland as its songwriting and production team. In 1967, Motown president Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, and replaced Ballard with Cindy Birdsong. Ross left to pursue a solo career in 1970 and was replaced by Jean Terrell, so the group's name reverted to The Supremes. During the mid-1970s, the lineup changed with Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne and Susaye Greene joining the group until, after 18 years, The Supremes disbanded in 1977.

Track 23 Get Happy Get Happy is a song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler. It was the first song they wrote together, and was introduced by Ruth Etting in The Nine-Fifteen Revue in 1930. Influenced by the Get Happy tradition, it is most associated with , who performed it in her last MGM film Summer Stock (1950).

Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress, singer and vaudevillian. Described by Fred Astaire as "the greatest entertainer who ever lived" and renowned for her contralto voice, she attained international stardom throughout a career that spanned more than 40 years as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the remake of A Star is Born. After appearing in vaudeville with her two older sisters, Garland was signed to Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. Despite her professional triumphs, Garland struggled immensely in her personal life, starting from when she was a child. Her self-image was strongly influenced by film executives, who said she was unattractive and constantly manipulated her onscreen physical appearance. She was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She married five times, with her first four marriages ending in divorce. She also had a long battle with drugs and alcohol, which ultimately led to her death at the age of 47. In 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the ten greatest female stars in the history of American cinema.

Track 24 My Little Welsh Home My Little Welsh Home is a Welsh folk song.

Ivor Lewis Emmanuel (7 November 1927 – 20 July 2007) was a Welsh and television singer and actor. He is probably best remembered for his appearance as "Private Owen" in the 1964 film Zulu, in which his character rallies British soldiers by leading them in the stirring Welsh battle hymn "Men of Harlech" to counter the Zulu war chants. After losing his parents at an early age, Emmanuel began working as a coal miner. He developed a keen interest in music and singing. He served as a chorister for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1950– 1951 but soon went on to play small roles in the West End productions of South Pacific, The King and I and Plain and Fancy. He continued to play in summer seasons of theatre and in cabaret and variety into the 1980s. During the late 1950s, he participated in the Welsh language singing television programme Dewch i Mewn, and from 1958 to 1964 was lead singer on the TWW show, Gwlad y Gan (Land of Song), among other TV shows. In 1960, he performed in the first televised edition of the Royal Variety Performance. He continued to perform on TV through the 1970s.

Track 25 On Mother Kelly's Doorstep George Alex Stevens (1875–1954) was a songwriter and musical show director and was known as a writer of music hall songs. One of his most famous was ‘On Mother Kelly's Doorstep’. It tells of Nellie sitting on the doorstep. Nellie was Nellie Moss a young Jewish immigrant from Lithuania. Nellie was a money lender at the time who later gave birth to twins.

Barbara Ann Windsor, MBE (born Barbara Ann Deeks on 6 August 1937) is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. Windsor came to real prominence with her portrayals of a 'good time girl' in nine Carry On films. Her first was Carry On Spying in 1964 and her final Carry On... film acting role was in Carry On Dick in 1974. In 1994 Windsor was cast in EastEnders. She took over the role of Peggy Mitchell (previously played by Jo Warne in 1991), for which she received the Best Actress award at the British Soap Awards in 1999 and a Lifetime Achievement award from the same source in 2009.

Track 26 He’ll Have To Go He'll Have to Go is an American country and pop hit recorded in 1959 by Jim Reeves. Reeves recorded what became one of country music's biggest hits ever after listening to a version recorded by singer Billy Brown. The song, written by Joe and Audrey Allison, was inspired after the couple was having difficulty communicating by telephone. Audrey had a soft voice and was unable to speak up so her husband could adequately hear her, so Joe would have his wife place the receiver closer to her mouth.

James Travis ‘Jim’ Reeves (August 20, 1923 – July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville sound (a mixture of older country-style music with elements of popular music). Known as "Gentleman Jim", his songs continued to chart for years after his death. Reeves died at age 40 in the crash of a private airplane.

Track 27 If I Loved You A show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. The song was introduced by John Raitt as "Billy Bigelow" and Jan Clayton as "Julie". It was performed in the 1956 Carousel (film) version by Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. In the show, the characters of Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan sing this song as they hesitantly declare their love for one another, yet are too shy to express their true feelings.

Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956) and films with Doris Day like Starlift. Born in New Jersey, MacRae graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1940 and served as a navigator in the United States Army Air Forces during .

Track 28 An Ordinary Copper This is the theme tune to Dixon of Dock Green

Jack Warner (born Horace John Waters) OBE (24 October 1895 – 24 May 1981) was an English film and television actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played until the age of eighty, but he was also for some years one of Great Britain's most popular film stars. It was in 1949 that Warner first played the role for which he would be remembered, PC George Dixon, in the film The Blue Lamp. One observer predicted, "This film will make Jack the most famous policeman in Britain". Although the police constable he played was shot dead in the film, the character was revived in 1955 for the BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, which ran until 1976. The series had a prime-time slot on Saturday evenings, and always opened with Dixon giving a little soliloquy to the camera, beginning with the words, "Good evening, all". According to Warner's autobiography, Elizabeth II once visited the television studio where the series was made and told Warner "that she thought Dixon of Dock Green had become part of the British way of life"

Track 29 The Hippopotamus Song The Hippopotamus was one of Flanders and Swann's best known songs (because of its memorable chorus, "Mud, mud, glorious mud"), and one of a range of songs that they wrote about different beasts.

Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo. The actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann (1923–1994) collaborated in writing and performing comic songs. They first worked together at a school revue in 1939 and eventually wrote over a hundred comic songs together.

Track 30 Paddy McGinty’s Goat One of Val Doonican’s most popular comic Irish tunes.

Val Doonican (born Michael Valentine Doonican, 3 February 1927) is an Irish singer. From 1965 to 1986 he was a regular fixture on the BBC with The Val Doonican Show, which featured his own singing performances and a variety of guest artists. The Show lasted for over 20 years. It featured his relaxed crooner style performance sitting in a rocking chair, as well as a number of comic Irish songs, notably "Paddy McGinty's Goat", "Delaney's Donkey", and "O'Rafferty's Motor Car", on which he accompanied himself on acoustic guitar. He often wore cardigans and jumpers, which became his trademark along with the rocking chairs from which he often performed. He claimed his main influence was Bing Crosby. He was the subject of ‘This Is Your Life’ in 1970 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews during a game of golf.

Track 31 Be My Life’s Companion It was written by Bob Hilliard (lyricist) and Milton De Lugg (composer) and published in 1951. A best selling version of the song was recorded by Rosemary Clooney in 1951.

Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" In 1954, she starred, along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen, in the movie White Christmas. Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression and drug addiction, but revived in 1977, when her Bing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. Clooney suffered for much of her life from bipolar disorder. She continued recording until her death in 2002.