Friday, September 26, 2008

Morecambe & Wise


A charity shop find from a few years back. This LP on the Philips label is was released in 1971 and features songs made famous by another great comedy duo Flanagan and Allen.

"The theatrical/TV impresario Bernard Delfont gave Morecambe and Wise their own ITV show after the pair appeared frequently on the small-screen in 1960, notching up 12 spots on Val Parnell's Sunday Night At The London Palladium. Now the same network pitched them into a show of their own, teaming the comedians with another double-act, the writers Sid Green and Dick Hills. Sid and Dick, as they soon became known to the nation, also ventured out from behind-the-scenes to feature in front of the cameras with the comics.

The first ATV series - broadcast live each week from the Wood Green Empire in north London - was so successful that a second run was commissioned and given a Saturday primetime slot; from here on, after seven years of irregular TV appearances, Morecambe and Wise were firmly established as stars of the medium and Britain's best comedy double-act. Catchphrases soon developed, with Eric as the wag and Ernie the butt of all jokes: Morecambe would grab Wise by the throat and remark 'Get out of that!'; Morecambe would claim that Wise possessed 'short fat hairy legs'; the two comics, with their scriptwriters, sang a catchy comedy song that attained national fame, 'Boom Oo Yatta Ta Ta'; and every programme ended with the first line - but never more - of the age-old dirty joke 'There were these two old men sitting in deckchairs...'.

As a result of these marvellous ITV shows, Morecambe and Wise branched out into the cinema with three starring feature films, The Intelligence Men, That Riviera Touch and The Magnificent Two, released in 1964, 1966 and 1967 respectively."

Go HERE to find out more about Eric and Ernie.


Morecambe & Wise - Underneath The Arches

Morecambe & Wise - Run Rabbit Run

Morecambe & Wise - Umbrella Man


Morecambe & Wise - Are You Havin' Any Fun

Morecambe & Wise - Strollin'


Morecambe & Wise - Only A Shanty In Old Shanty Town


These SendSpace files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear sir,

I was so glad to have found these songs (I have been desperately looking for them for ages)... till I realised that the links had expired for a good two years. Oops. Being a young French Morecambe & Wise fan (well, I admit that's inviting trouble!), it's pretty hard for me to find the stuff I like — since I don't own a credit card, I can't even order it on the internet. *insert puppy eyes here*

Now you know what's coming: would you be so kind as to re-upload these songs, if it's not too much trouble? You might also send them to me at nemoneminem (at) yahoo (dot) com, if that's more convenient.

Thank you so much for your understanding. Best wishes,

Benjamin

Wastedpapiers said...

Thanks for the enquiry Ben. I will see what I can do but may take a while to find this one amongst my collection.

Anonymous said...

Well, considering I've been digging for this record for about two years, there's really no rush right now :) I'm only too glad to have stumbled onto your blog. It's an Aladdin's cave! Everybody thinks me a bit of a weirdo at home, since basically a teenage boy like me has nothing to do with British stuff and especially old, impossible-to-get whatnot; but a crazy English penpal I had when I was thirteen got me into Monty Python, Morecambe & Wise, Goons et al, and I've been a hopeless case ever since ^^

Er... how shall I put it? The Vivian Stanshall LP (http://bootsalesounds.blogspot.com/2005/11/vivian-stanshall.html) and the Marty Feldman tape (http://bootsalesounds.blogspot.com/2005/08/marty-feldman.html) have also had me drooling all over my keyboard. Oh, and have I mentioned Spike Milligan's songs (http://bootsalesounds.blogspot.com/2007/09/spike-milligan.html)? *Yes, I've been lurking 'round here all night.* I really don't want to be a nuisance and I do know it's asking a lot from you, but I'd be eternally grateful if you could re-upload any of these someday.

Anyway, thanks again for all the brilliant job you've done —from now on you have a regular froggy follower :)

Benjy

Wastedpapiers said...

OK I will see what I can find of those you mention - always happy to re-upload things that people want.

Bon chance!