More London Songs

WFMU is a New Jersey-based freeform radio station, a bit like London’s Resonance FM. On its blog, David Noades has posted a remarkable collection of London songs – a mixture of music hall, comedy and other ‘light entertainment’ gems mostly recorded in the 1960s and 70s. It’s the kind of stuff that you would only find by trawling through charity shop vinyl and listening to some dreadful records – actually a lot of the tracks he posts are dreadful but strangely compelling to Londonists, crap cockernee accents and all. Among the transpontine numbers are Dick Emery’s Bermondsey (‘outside the pub on a Saturday night you can take part in a heavyweight fight’) and a version of Lambeth Walk by 60s TV hostess Monica Rose (thanks to Bob for spotting this one).

As a further contribution to this collection, I have just posted a Youtube clip of the strange spectacle of Fozzie Bear singing the music hall number Wot'cher (Knocked Em in the Old Kent Road) on The Muppet Show complete with Pearly King outfit! American child star Shirley Temple also sang this in the 1936 film Little Princess (clip also on Youtube).