1954.

I’m not sure what’s worse first thing on a Monday. The novelty song with a title that takes half-an-hour to say and type, or the realisation that I woke up with Max Bygraves in my head…again. I know one thing for sure though, the autocorrect is having an absolute meltdown this morning.

Written by composer Al Hoffman, author of If I Knew You Were Coming I’d’ve Baked A Cake, and songwriter Dick Manning, this was first recorded by Canadian quartet The Four Lads and released in the US on 27 February 1954, eventually reaching number eighteen on the Billboard chart. In the same year Bygraves recorded his version, released on 23 June, which 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 just continued to get worse.

This morning, I am rather inclined to agree with him.