1954.

I’m not sure what’s worse this morning, the song with a title that takes half-an-hour to say, or the realisation that I woke up with Max Bygraves in my head! Either way,  it appears I have a novelty start to the day.

Written by Al Hoffman, author of If I Knew You Were Coming I’d’ve Baked A Cake, and Dick Manning,  this was first recorded by The Four Lads in the US and released on 27 February 1954. In the same year Bygraves recorded his version, on 23 June, and it entered the UK charts on 10 September, spending eight weeks on the charts and peaking at number seven.

When talking about this, and other songs from his early career, even Bygraves himself admitted that they were bad and continued to get worse. This morning I’m inclined to agree with him.