OMG - With A Song in my Heart - Sunday lunchtime, roast dinner, Dad smoking his pipe, Mum in the kitchen, windows steamed up - happy days..........Children's favourites with Uncle Mac........I remember it well, where does the time go? thank you so much for posting this.
1.00 With a song in my heart. From Two way Family Favorites.It brings tears to my eyes when I remember listening to that music. Mum, Dad, Sis, Granny, and the Sunday roast. Those happy days are gone forever.
We listen to it Sunday lunch time Billy cotton band show after then educating Archie or the clitherow kid and in the afternoon sing something simple and Movie-go-round and last of all Radio Luxembourg with the Jack Jackson show
I was one of the Ovalteenees singing here at the BBC on a Sunday with my Brother and Sister, every Sunday, my Brother has sadly past away, but my Sister will be 91 in December and I am 93, we still remember those days with fondness.
How wonderful that you've reached your 90s, brilliant, but time has spoilt your memory. The Ovalteenies were NEVER on the BBC, and were pre war, on Radio Normandie. Which Broadcast from Fecamp, on the Normandy Coast, until the outbreak of the War. This was 1930s music
Thank you for reminding me of a time when life was simpler, worry free and happy, i remember them all so well, listening to Listen with Mother, with my Mum, and later with my brother…..sublime, the days before TV…..
Who remembers Radio Luxembourg? I do, it was like a small Black Box that we had on the Wall. Like a modern day Device, we were glued to it, we had music all day.
This takes me back to my childhood, With a Song in my Heart by Andre Kostelanitz, Sunday roast dinners and Two Way Family Favourites with Cliff Michelmore and I think Jean Metcalfe.
My Darling Smoochy, Of course I love this.....I love the song and I can just imagine a little Smoochy sitting listening to "With a Song in My Heart" in front of the radio drinking Ovaltine..:-) Thank you for sharing. Smooches g
Ah! Golden radio memories, how a single few notes can evoke memories of 50, 60, 70 years ago. Good, simple uncomplicated comedy with not a swear word in sight. Remember Wilfred Pickles, Tommy Handley, Tommy Trinder Jewel and Warriors (Pickles read the news once but people didn't get his accent). Such simplicity wouldn't get them anywhere these days. Thank goodness these old memories can be kept alive for us oldies (and youngest) to enjoy. xxxxxx
Wilfred Pickles and Mable---I have to laugh when I think of the amounts of money gifted to member's of the audience.. How much is on the table Mabel'? ''2 bob ' and we thought it great.
What lovely memories this brings back particularly the version of With A Song in My Heart, theme tune from Two Way Family Favourites with Cliff Michelmore. It reminds me of lazy Sunday mornings.
I'm English - in Canada since 1975 - but I hear English people speaking "English" now and I cringe. Am I a snob? Hope not. That English chef is one of the worst!
All these tunes take me back to having washing drying on a maiden in front of the fire, backing up the fire with potato peelings ,tea leaves and nutty slack before going out to the pictures, to see the likes of Edward G Robinson, James Cagney, George Raft and others.
Kevin Drennan Used to call 'em clothes horses. Washed in the galvanised "tin" bath, shivered while the guarded fire seared the skin off one arm. Whitewashed walls. And all watched over by The Clock (I worked out Roman numerals from that thing). Cossor radio, with its valves. Woman's hour, I understood little of. Then the '57 'flu epedemic nearly claimed me. But sixty years on, I'M STILL HERE!! Here it all is - in just 4 minutes... th-cam.com/video/bxPKKcpyg6c/w-d-xo.html
Making a simple maiden/clothes horse (two frames with a hinge) was common school woodwork project. Mine had hinges made from leather fixed with tacks. I still have it and the joinery is actually good! Mortise & tenon and bridle joints.
@TheAnn2shoes How true, it reminds me of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and my late parents and of course Cliff Michelmore. They were less cynical days and people were satisfied with far less and probably happier too.
Wish I still had the big old valve radio now, Was such a wonderful sound. I remember being very sad when it went to be replaced by a TV. My Dad got an ancient one later just for me!
1# Ovaltine song We are the Ovaltinys, Harry Hemsley published 1935 Broadcast by Radio Normandie, from Fecamp, on the Normandy Coast, on Long Wave and during the day as well as night. As far as I am aware It was never on The Station of the Stars Radio Luxemburg, which was mainly 1950s/60s, and only started broadcasting at 7:00PM, after The Archers had finished🤣😂🤣😂 too late for young Children. Mum who died aged 99 March 2024, was an Ovaltiny. Please note anyone quoting Wikipedia, 80% wrong.
We always tend to look back with rose-tinted glasses...It was a different time, not necessarily safer. I grew up in the 60s, there was abuse, violence & paedophilia - those things weren't openly talked about so it may seem as though they didn't exist... Nuclear weapons were as much a problem then as now (bay of pigs anyone?)...The environment was an issue then but it was 'invisible' - in fact, the problems we have now are an accumulation of things not dealt with then: growing up, I saw more birds than we do now: their massive decline took decades to make according to an article in the 'New Scientist'...In short: the past has laid the foundations for what we have today.
It's called 'Television March' composed by Eric Coates. Available on a CD called 'London Again' with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Wilson.
Two way family favourites introduced me to With a Song in my Heart long before I ever heard the words. Now it is one of my favourite songs and it from 1929-Amazing!
@charade97. I think you will find that when the Alexandra Palace tower was shown with TV waves encircling, the programme was 'Television Newsreel' and the music was a march called 'Imperial Echoes' played by the band of the RAF
Johnny Norfolk Hi Johnny Norfolk....I am Tony Suffolk. Great names eh! I greatly enjoyed the warm nostalgia of hearing these sounds from our childhood. We are a lucky generation. We have lived through great times.
1.Ovaltinys, Radio Normandy, ( pre-war ), 2.With A song In My Heart, Andre Kostelanetz & His Orchestra, 1947, theme for Family Favourites, 3. The Television March by Eric Coates, one of his less well known pieces to herald the new high defintion TV service, 4. Puffing Billy,introducing Childrens Favourites, Derek McCulloch,Uncle Mac,5. Typewriter by Leroy Anderson, c 1950, but not plaved by his Orchestra.Hope this helps !.Roger.
J Burden I had a second-hand everything! Money was scarce in those days and barter was the order of the day!! Amazing how contended we were with our lot!
@filcharlee -Charles Williams was also responsible for the Dick Barton theme. He was also a talented scorer of films - his most famous being "While I Live" - with its centrepiece: "The Dream Of Olwen" - which an alter-ego of mine just uploaded!
At this time of year I have to get my 'fix' of Victor Hely Hutchinson's theme music for the Radio presentation of 'The Box of Delights'................absolute magic!
Agreed, and I have an home-made recording of the original programme too! It was repeated some time later, didn't have a tape recorder when it was first broadcast!
(Continued) The orchestral version was first recorded in 1949 by Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops Orchestra. Whether or not Prokofiev used it too, I've no idea.
fan dango is correct. The FULL version is now available on TH-cam. Puffin' Billy, by the Melodi Light Orch (actually the Danish Radio Orch, conducted by Robert Farnon, I believe).
@morpheusatloppers I can tell you exactly where this piece-3minutes 46 seconds- was played on the BBC. It was played just before evening TV started at 6 o'clock and featured the Television tower at Alexandra Palace. You will no doubt recall that the tower appeared on its own and when the theme started the radio or TV waves would circle round the tower. I think it was written by Robert Farnon.
(continued) It was used for such things as the intermission (The Potter's Wheel) and currently is being used on Radio4 as the introduction to the News Quiz.
@morpheusatloppers Spot on!-that was Rodgers and Hart's ' With a Song In My Heart' and this famous arrangement was by Andre Kostalanetz and was used by the BBC for the Sunday 'Family Favourites'
@malgray2 You're very welcome. As to whether Sleigh Ride came from Prokofiev, here's what Wiki has to say - "Sleigh Ride" is a popular light orchestral piece composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946; he finished the work in February 1948. Lyrics, about a person who would like to ride in a sleigh on a winter's day with another person, were written by Mitchell Parish in 1950.
@discotecaotonal - Sadly, soon after acquiring these two sets of themes, I lost the crib sheet! Most I know, but not this one. I THINK it is by Eric Coates - as it is VERY similar to his "Knightsbridge March" (which the BBC used for "In Town Tonight") - but it is a RECORD. The BBC often used records (which they paid royalties on) rather than spend the extra money to COMMISSION an original piece. Thus, ANYONE could use them - and a lot of foreign stations who wanted to copy the BBC's style DID!
Apart from the "Ovaltineys Song", the Radio Luxembourg closing down ritual included their National Anthem and Steve Conway singing "At The End Of The Day". Powerful memories.
I have many CD's of these great original themes, but without doubt, the best of all is--' The Great British Experience,' virtually every radio and early TV themes going back to 30's and 40's + all -ORIGINALS mostly cleaned up electronically,' Two discs, great value. The cover shows a well known image, of a steam engine, apparently coming out of a chimney Fireplace.
@Mancunian6 You're quite right. Prokofiev wrote a piece called Troika which depicts Lt Kijé driving through the snow in a sleigh pulled by three horses. There are parallels but the Prokofiev piece has more tonal variation.
A personal favourite from those days has to be "Coronation Scot" by Vivian Ellis - used, if memory serves me correctly, as the theme for the "Paul Temple" detective series.
@charade97. Further to my last comment :-' Imperial Echoes' was the theme music to Radio Newsreel and not Television Newsreel as I stated. The theme music to the early Television Newsreel programmes when the mast at Alexandra Palace was shown with TV waves was 'Girls in Grey' and was written by Charles Williams. I think he was right about the tune at No 3 being the introduction music at the start-up of each evening's TV.
The Ovaltineys was great - I used to have a 45rmp record with 4 songs on it and used to play it in my amateur Dj days. :) Yes morpeus, the 2nd one you are correct, it was With A Song in my Heart. I've no idea about the 3rd one either. Number 4 was actually Children's Favourites (Puffin' Billy) and 5 is actually called The Typewriter composed by Leroy Anderson who also composed such classics as Sleigh Ride and Old McDonald had a Farm. :)
Yep! It's "Puffin' Billy" by the Melodi Light Orchestra, composed by Edward White. It was used for "Childrens Favourites". At the time I put these compilations together, the full version was not available. But someone has now uploaded it onto TH-cam. Comments will not carry URLs - but TH-cam Search "Puffin' Billy Children's Favourites" and you should find it!
I looked this up (I've never heard "My Word"). According to Wiki, the theme for that was something called "Alpine Pastures", by Vivian Ellis. However THESE days, a brass version of Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter" IS used by the BBC as the theme for "The News Quiz" (which I still enjoy, retired here to Thailand, thanks to my son who sends me disks of UK progs). But it COULD be the Beeb CHANGED the theme for Canadian transmissions of "My Word" (copyright issues, whatever). However (again)...
Delightful stuff to do homework by. Of course, it is distracting to hear a familiar piece and then try to affix a title to it. Yes, I can recognize Farnon and Coates, but it would never do if I had to name that tune! BTW "The Typewriter" was written by Leroy Anderson.
@morpheusatloppers: I grew up in what was then Frobisher Bay now named Iqaluit NV., with the C.B.C. northern service. We would get more than our share of B.B.C. programming - "The Clitheroe Kid", "Beyond Our Ken", etc., I seem to remember Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter" as the theme for the quiz show "My Word". Am I right? Anne Scott-James, I still love you passionately!!!!
I'm not so sure about those Sunday afternoons - my recollections are rather similar to Tony Hancock's :-) For me "Sing Something Simple" was the low point - apologies if that offends any fans!
Oh God! Sing Something Simple. What a dreary, depressing programme and theme tune. It sums up all that was stifling, grey and repressed in post war dreary Britain. And the temerity in giving their musical treatment to Beatles number.
Kathleen Ferrier singing Blow the wind southerly is my over riding memory of Sunday afternoons in the 50s, my wife and I used to go for long walks instead; anything rather than sitting in the house all afternoon! Mind you, as awful as I thought it was at the time, I'd take it any day now rather than the bloody xfactor or whatever such nonce you get on Sundays now!
Oh dear me--Kathleen Ferrier---and yet, a few years ago, I watched a BBC documentary about her, and it turns out, that she was a jolly Lancashire lass, from an ordinary background, who had an extraordinary voice, and with a great sense of humour. WE can blame the snobs at the BBC for not playing some of her really nice lighter recordings. Sadly she died young, of cancer.
I think it came on after Pick Of The Pops with Alan Freeman. It reminds me of the car journey back home from the Welsh coast with my sister and parents. Happy days.
As a kid, I dreaded my parents switching on the radio for "proper" music. I used to sing "Sing Something Sinful" and got sent to my bedroom. There I listened to 208 on the medium wave band.
I have to admit to knowing all these tunes (also those in Pt 1), except for the Ovaltiney's theme, which I think dates to the 1930s, before I was born. I remember the 1950s as a time of unquestioning conformity to rigid social structures, as a solid economic base was built following the ravages of World War II. The 1960s were of course very different, and I am glad that my teens occurred then, and not in the 1950s.
These were superb pieces, by composers like Eric Coates, for example, which we do not seem to hear anymore as used for programs. No, so often it is something minimal which just HAS to use a drum kit and very little musical content. Generalisms are wrong, (except that one!) but I think some of you know what I mean.
Okay, in case "cam6617" wants to know what THESE ones are... (1) The Ovaltinys (nowadays known as Ovalteenies, but this was the late FORTIES!) Song. It was actually Radio Luxembourg (2) oh dear... I THINK it was Two-Way Family Favourites and was called "With A Song In My Heart"(?) (3) ...has me BEAT (4) I'm pretty sure this is Housewives' Choice (5) The TUNE is David Rose's "Typewriter (something)" but I can't recall what Auntie used it for! DAMN! I really AM getting old!!!
@discotecaotonal You may have found out by now but the music you refer to is ' Television March ' by one of the greatest British Composers of ' light classical music ', Eric Coates.It was commisioned to herald the introduction of the world's first high-definition TV service in 1936.Hope this helps !.Roger.
Surely No. 3 is composed by Eric Coates. its too much like his other marches. I think it was used to introduce Television Newsreel which was on about 6pm in 1947 ish. No 4 was the Intro to "Children's Choice" which occupied the "Housewives Choice" slot on BBC Light Programme at 9.05 am but on a Saturday
I want to know the title and orchestra the theme begins minute 3, second 46. This melody remember me radio news program in Santiago de Chile, in the fifties. Thank you.
I recorded these for myself, long before I began uploading - and failed to make a LIST! But see further down the comments - generous commenters have filled them in for me.
...if we are talking the Fifties, I DO seem to recall "The Typewriter" being used as the sig-tune of SOMETHING - but my poor old brain cannot remember what (and Wiki does not know either). It may even have been a BBC TV prog - like something to do with newspapers? Anyone have any more ideas?
+morpheusatloppers: re: "The typewriter" - I can't quite remember either, but it might have been some sort of programme where people wrote in commenting about programmes (like "Points of View" on the telly). I have a feeling that children wrote in ...maybe there was a kids version ... I have a feeling that it sounded like it was only "posh" children who wrote in (or who got their letters read out). But I may be imagining this ...
As I remember The Typewriter was used for a comedy series about an advertising agencey; 'Something to Shout About' I think was its title. Any way the introduction said, "You're about to hear the only advertising programme on the BBC..." ...etc....
If my poor old memory serves me correctly, Prokofiev's Troika from Lt. Kijé was popularly entitled Winter Sleigh Ride and I can't remember ever hearing lyrics for it, as opposed to Sleigh Ride. And not that I'ld want to criticize the generous contributor but yes, a list would be just great!
True. And original melodies in 1980, Pop Music in 1990 - and even Dance Music soon after the Millennium. It's all in the past now. (American filmed drama is still good, though - as is British panel comedy - and Baby Boomer movies look set to start reeling in the remakes, sequels, "prequels", no-brain actioners, FX movies, 3D computer animations and spinoff movies that have bedevilled our cinemas for years - as the kids tire of them, in favour of those iPads they have now). So it's not ALL bad!
I think we spent half of our listening life trying to tune luxy in, not realising then what the cause of it was. We kids did have our own music channel and the BBC didn't like that, they even tried to get it closed down. What a lot of stuffed shirts in those days.
Was The programme "Family Favourites" (which had evolved from "Forces Favourites")? The name "Two Way Family Favourites" comes to mind as well, but not sure if that was just a different name for the same programme, or some variation. Everything about the fifties seemed to hark back to the war in one way or another...my parents were always talking about it....and so were everyone else's, apparently.
Although Wikipedia is no more reliable than TH-cam comments :-) this entry seems to confirm that it was originally called "Family Favourites", and had succeeded the wartime programme "Forces Favourites". I'm struggling to remember the exact significance of the "Two Way" though. Was it that they had a presenter in both Germany as well as London, so forces members could request songs for people at home, as well as the other way around (which was presumably the original intention)? I suppose more advanced broadcasting technology made this easier than it would have been when the programme started. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Favourites The song appears to have come originally from a 1929 Rogers and Hart musical. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_a_Song_in_My_Heart_(song)
PLEASE could someone tell me what the theme is at 07:06 ? It featured in the recent Antiques Road Trip show as incidental music and the BBC are far too up their own anuses (anii ?) to research it.
OMG - With A Song in my Heart - Sunday lunchtime, roast dinner, Dad smoking his pipe, Mum in the kitchen, windows steamed up - happy days..........Children's favourites with Uncle Mac........I remember it well, where does the time go? thank you so much for posting this.
1.00 With a song in my heart. From Two way Family Favorites.It brings tears to my eyes when I remember listening to that music. Mum, Dad, Sis, Granny, and the Sunday roast.
Those happy days are gone forever.
We listen to it Sunday lunch time Billy cotton band show after then educating Archie or the clitherow kid and in the afternoon sing something simple and Movie-go-round and last of all Radio Luxembourg with the Jack Jackson show
I was one of the Ovalteenees singing here at the BBC on a Sunday with my Brother and Sister, every Sunday, my Brother has sadly past away, but my Sister will be 91 in December and I am 93, we still remember those days with fondness.
I am an ovalteeny
How wonderful that you've reached your 90s, brilliant, but time has spoilt your memory.
The Ovalteenies were NEVER on the BBC, and were pre war, on Radio Normandie. Which Broadcast from Fecamp, on the Normandy Coast, until the outbreak of the War.
This was 1930s music
God,close your eyes and you are transported back 50 years or so,when life was not going at 100 mph !! Thanks for posting,brings back happy times.
The OVALTEENIES Club goes back over 80 years I was an OVALTEENEE and my Brother and Sister age now 90 and Me age 93 fond memories every SUNDAY
Happy Times!!
Wasn't that the theme tune to Family Favourites?
Thank you for reminding me of a time when life was simpler, worry free and happy, i remember them all so well, listening to Listen with Mother, with my Mum, and later with my brother…..sublime, the days before TV…..
Who remembers Radio Luxembourg? I do, it was like a small Black Box that we had on the Wall. Like a modern day Device, we were glued to it, we had music all day.
Two way family favourites. “What’s the weather like where you are Judith??”
With A Song In My Heart.....Memories of wonderful sunday lunches and Family Favourites. Thankyou.
Thanks for the memories of better times...appreciated!
wonderful , fabulous , happy music......there should be more of it.....I love this era
This takes me back to my childhood, With a Song in my Heart by Andre Kostelanitz, Sunday roast dinners and Two Way Family Favourites with Cliff Michelmore and I think Jean Metcalfe.
I remember Two Way Family Favourites. Loved it!
Yes it was good wasn't it.
My Darling Smoochy,
Of course I love this.....I love the song and I can just imagine a little Smoochy
sitting listening to "With a Song in My Heart" in front of the radio drinking
Ovaltine..:-)
Thank you for sharing.
Smooches
g
***** So pleased you liked it. It's very nostalgic for me and of course annie482000.
Love and kisses
David xxx
Phil Binstead I do too - happy, happy days!
Strange how music can bring back memories. I was an Ovaltiney and used to listen to this song in our lounge circa 1952. Where does time go.
It wasn’t BBC but208 Luxembourg
Ah! Golden radio memories, how a single few notes can evoke memories of 50, 60, 70 years ago. Good, simple uncomplicated comedy with not a swear word in sight. Remember Wilfred Pickles, Tommy Handley, Tommy Trinder Jewel and Warriors (Pickles read the news once but people didn't get his accent). Such simplicity wouldn't get them anywhere these days. Thank goodness these old memories can be kept alive for us oldies (and youngest) to enjoy. xxxxxx
Wilfred Pickles and Mable---I have to laugh when I think of the amounts of money gifted to member's of the audience.. How much is on the table Mabel'? ''2 bob ' and we thought it great.
Jewell and Warris
Thank you form putting together this great compilation. A great nostalgia trip!
What lovely memories this brings back particularly the version of With A Song in My Heart, theme tune from Two Way Family Favourites with Cliff Michelmore. It reminds me of lazy Sunday mornings.
The background music of my childhood. Great memories. 📻😎❤
Thank you what warm memories wonderful
When listening to people speaking English was a joy.
I'm English - in Canada since 1975 - but I hear English people speaking "English" now and I cringe. Am I a snob? Hope not. That English chef is one of the worst!
All these tunes take me back to having washing drying on a maiden in front of the fire, backing up the fire with potato peelings ,tea leaves and nutty slack before going out to the pictures, to see the likes of Edward G Robinson, James Cagney, George Raft and others.
Kevin Drennan Used to call 'em clothes horses. Washed in the galvanised "tin" bath, shivered while the guarded fire seared the skin off one arm. Whitewashed walls. And all watched over by The Clock (I worked out Roman numerals from that thing). Cossor radio, with its valves. Woman's hour, I understood little of. Then the '57 'flu epedemic nearly claimed me. But sixty years on, I'M STILL HERE!! Here it all is - in just 4 minutes... th-cam.com/video/bxPKKcpyg6c/w-d-xo.html
Making a simple maiden/clothes horse (two frames with a hinge) was common school woodwork project. Mine had hinges made from leather fixed with tacks. I still have it and the joinery is actually good! Mortise & tenon and bridle joints.
What lovely memories this music brings back
Wonderful memories from the late '40s early '50s - thanks.
Eric Coats also wrote the dambusters march and his Kensinton Suite was used for In Town Tonight. Enjoyable tape!
@TheAnn2shoes How true, it reminds me of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and my late parents and of course Cliff Michelmore. They were less cynical days and people were satisfied with far less and probably happier too.
Happy years of wonderfull tunes.
Wish I still had the big old valve radio now, Was such a wonderful sound. I remember being very sad when it went to be replaced by a TV. My Dad got an ancient one later just for me!
*_Lucky you!_*
1# Ovaltine song We are the Ovaltinys, Harry Hemsley published 1935 Broadcast by Radio Normandie, from Fecamp, on the Normandy Coast, on Long Wave and during the day as well as night.
As far as I am aware It was never on The Station of the Stars Radio Luxemburg, which was mainly 1950s/60s, and only started broadcasting at 7:00PM, after The Archers had finished🤣😂🤣😂 too late for young Children.
Mum who died aged 99 March 2024, was an Ovaltiny.
Please note anyone quoting Wikipedia, 80% wrong.
The Children's Favourite's theme tune was "Puffing Billy" by Edward White.
Happy memories from when I was a conscript in the RAF and afterwards a student at a university college
Great days, safer times and better music than now. I miss them all. Ian Allman
Same here miss the music and times roll back the years how I wish
We always tend to look back with rose-tinted glasses...It was a different time, not necessarily safer. I grew up in the 60s, there was abuse, violence & paedophilia - those things weren't openly talked about so it may seem as though they didn't exist... Nuclear weapons were as much a problem then as now (bay of pigs anyone?)...The environment was an issue then but it was 'invisible' - in fact, the problems we have now are an accumulation of things not dealt with then: growing up, I saw more birds than we do now: their massive decline took decades to make according to an article in the 'New Scientist'...In short: the past has laid the foundations for what we have today.
Still love hearing "Sailing By".....
Bill Crozier & Jean Metcalf,happy memories,gone in an instant.
+Paul Kersey The Sunday roast cooking nicely, followed by?---WAKEY WAKEEEY ! Billy Cotton Band Show--Alan Breeze etc etc --Oh dear---so long ago--
Thanks, I forgot about Bill. Of course, before him, was Cliff Mitchelmore, who married Jean Metcalf.
It's called 'Television March' composed by Eric Coates.
Available on a CD called 'London Again' with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Wilson.
Two way family favourites introduced me to With a Song in my Heart long before I ever heard the words. Now it is one of my favourite songs and it from 1929-Amazing!
Halcyon days indeed! Superb stuff!
@charade97. I think you will find that when the Alexandra Palace tower was shown with TV waves encircling, the programme was 'Television Newsreel' and the music was a march called 'Imperial Echoes' played by the band of the RAF
Thanks for posting so enjoyed and such memories.
Johnny Norfolk Hi Johnny Norfolk....I am Tony Suffolk. Great names eh! I greatly enjoyed the warm nostalgia of hearing these sounds from our childhood. We are a lucky generation. We have lived through great times.
Today They do not know what they have mised as they walk about with their brain in the phone.
My big brother (born 1935) was an Ovaltiney! I knew the first couple of lines from hearing him sing them all those years ago.
1.Ovaltinys, Radio Normandy, ( pre-war ), 2.With A song In My Heart, Andre Kostelanetz & His Orchestra, 1947, theme for Family Favourites, 3. The Television March by Eric Coates, one of his less well known pieces to herald the new high defintion TV service, 4. Puffing Billy,introducing Childrens Favourites, Derek McCulloch,Uncle Mac,5. Typewriter by Leroy Anderson, c 1950, but not plaved by his Orchestra.Hope this helps !.Roger.
"Puffing Billy" was also the theme for the American children's television show "Captain Kangaroo," which ran from 1955 to 1984 on the CBS network.
Ah, what wonderful days they were...
...we had a Morris Minor...
I had a second-hand bike!
J Burden LOL!
J Burden I had a second-hand everything! Money was scarce in those days and barter was the order of the day!! Amazing how contended we were with our lot!
@filcharlee -Charles Williams was also responsible for the Dick Barton theme. He was also a talented scorer of films - his most famous being "While I Live" - with its centrepiece: "The Dream Of Olwen" - which an alter-ego of mine just uploaded!
At this time of year I have to get my 'fix' of Victor Hely Hutchinson's theme music for the Radio presentation of 'The Box of Delights'................absolute magic!
Agreed, and I have an home-made recording of the original programme too! It was repeated some time later, didn't have a tape recorder when it was first broadcast!
I want a CD collection of these to play at home non stop!
Much thanks for this! I was beginning to think it had all vanished into oblivion!
As good as part 1 and my comment would be the same, if only life was this easy going and simple again,
I agree!!
(Continued) The orchestral version was first recorded in 1949 by Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops Orchestra. Whether or not Prokofiev used it too, I've no idea.
fan dango is correct. The FULL version is now available on TH-cam. Puffin' Billy, by the Melodi Light Orch (actually the Danish Radio Orch, conducted by Robert Farnon, I believe).
@morpheusatloppers I can tell you exactly where this piece-3minutes 46 seconds- was played on the BBC. It was played just before evening TV started at 6 o'clock and featured the Television tower at Alexandra Palace. You will no doubt recall that the tower appeared on its own and when the theme started the radio or TV waves would circle round the tower. I think it was written by Robert Farnon.
(continued) It was used for such things as the intermission (The Potter's Wheel) and currently is being used on Radio4 as the introduction to the News Quiz.
@morpheusatloppers Spot on!-that was Rodgers and Hart's ' With a Song In My Heart' and this famous arrangement was by Andre Kostalanetz and was used by the BBC for the Sunday 'Family Favourites'
@malgray2 You're very welcome. As to whether Sleigh Ride came from Prokofiev, here's what Wiki has to say - "Sleigh Ride" is a popular light orchestral piece composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946; he finished the work in February 1948. Lyrics, about a person who would like to ride in a sleigh on a winter's day with another person, were written by Mitchell Parish in 1950.
@charade97 - When I get to my 12" 78s - I must put a couple of early, lush, Andre Kostelanetz pieces up!
@discotecaotonal - Sadly, soon after acquiring these two sets of themes, I lost the crib sheet! Most I know, but not this one. I THINK it is by Eric Coates - as it is VERY similar to his "Knightsbridge March" (which the BBC used for "In Town Tonight") - but it is a RECORD. The BBC often used records (which they paid royalties on) rather than spend the extra money to COMMISSION an original piece. Thus, ANYONE could use them - and a lot of foreign stations who wanted to copy the BBC's style DID!
Apart from the "Ovaltineys Song", the Radio Luxembourg closing down ritual included their National Anthem and Steve Conway singing "At The End Of The Day".
Powerful memories.
Makes me want to play my CD of Sparky's Magic Piano !!!!
I have many CD's of these great original themes, but without doubt, the best of all is--' The Great British Experience,' virtually every radio and early TV themes going back to 30's and 40's + all -ORIGINALS mostly cleaned up electronically,' Two discs, great value. The cover shows a well known image, of a steam engine, apparently coming out of a chimney Fireplace.
Radio Luxemberg used to fade.
@Mancunian6 You're quite right. Prokofiev wrote a piece called Troika which depicts Lt Kijé driving through the snow in a sleigh pulled by three horses. There are parallels but the Prokofiev piece has more tonal variation.
A personal favourite from those days has to be "Coronation Scot" by Vivian Ellis - used, if memory serves me correctly, as the theme for the "Paul Temple" detective series.
@charade97. Further to my last comment :-' Imperial Echoes' was the theme music to Radio Newsreel and not Television Newsreel as I stated. The theme music to the early Television Newsreel programmes when the mast at Alexandra Palace was shown with TV waves was 'Girls in Grey' and was written by Charles Williams. I think he was right about the tune at No 3 being the introduction music at the start-up of each evening's TV.
The Ovaltineys was great - I used to have a 45rmp record with 4 songs on it and used to play it in my amateur Dj days. :) Yes morpeus, the 2nd one you are correct, it was With A Song in my Heart. I've no idea about the 3rd one either. Number 4 was actually Children's Favourites (Puffin' Billy) and 5 is actually called The Typewriter composed by Leroy Anderson who also composed such classics as Sleigh Ride and Old McDonald had a Farm. :)
Yep! It's "Puffin' Billy" by the Melodi Light Orchestra, composed by Edward White. It was used for "Childrens Favourites".
At the time I put these compilations together, the full version was not available. But someone has now uploaded it onto TH-cam. Comments will not carry URLs - but TH-cam Search "Puffin' Billy Children's Favourites" and you should find it!
could anyone tell me where I can find the music for Woman's Hour and the time it was broadcast in the 1950s please?
I looked this up (I've never heard "My Word"). According to Wiki, the theme for that was something called "Alpine Pastures", by Vivian Ellis.
However THESE days, a brass version of Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter" IS used by the BBC as the theme for "The News Quiz" (which I still enjoy, retired here to Thailand, thanks to my son who sends me disks of UK progs).
But it COULD be the Beeb CHANGED the theme for Canadian transmissions of "My Word" (copyright issues, whatever).
However (again)...
We used enjoy these programs in Ireland . B
Delightful stuff to do homework by. Of course, it is distracting to hear a familiar piece and then try to affix a title to it. Yes, I can recognize Farnon and Coates, but it would never do if I had to name that tune! BTW "The Typewriter" was written by Leroy Anderson.
@morpheusatloppers: I grew up in what was then Frobisher Bay now named Iqaluit NV., with the C.B.C. northern service. We would get more than our share of B.B.C. programming - "The Clitheroe Kid", "Beyond Our Ken", etc., I seem to remember Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter" as the theme for the quiz show "My Word". Am I right? Anne Scott-James, I still love you passionately!!!!
The theme at 7:08 is called "Puffin Billy" also was used at the theme for the Captain Kangaroo program in the U.S.
Those were the days.
I'm not so sure about those Sunday afternoons - my recollections are rather similar to Tony Hancock's :-) For me "Sing Something Simple" was the low point - apologies if that offends any fans!
Oh God! Sing Something Simple. What a dreary, depressing programme and theme tune. It sums up all that was stifling, grey and repressed in post war dreary Britain. And the temerity in giving their musical treatment to Beatles number.
Kathleen Ferrier singing Blow the wind southerly is my over riding memory of Sunday afternoons in the 50s, my wife and I used to go for long walks instead; anything rather than sitting in the house all afternoon! Mind you, as awful as I thought it was at the time, I'd take it any day now rather than the bloody xfactor or whatever such nonce you get on Sundays now!
Oh dear me--Kathleen Ferrier---and yet, a few years ago, I watched a BBC documentary about her, and it turns out, that she was a jolly Lancashire lass, from an ordinary background, who had an extraordinary voice, and with a great sense of humour. WE can blame the snobs at the BBC for not playing some of her really nice lighter recordings. Sadly she died young, of cancer.
I think it came on after Pick Of The Pops with Alan Freeman. It reminds me of the car journey back home from the Welsh coast with my sister and parents. Happy days.
As a kid, I dreaded my parents switching on the radio for "proper" music. I used to sing "Sing Something Sinful" and got sent to my bedroom. There I listened to 208 on the medium wave band.
Does anyone know what programme featured Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter"?
Love it! Thank you so very much :)
I have to admit to knowing all these tunes (also those in Pt 1), except for the Ovaltiney's theme, which I think dates to the 1930s, before I was born. I remember the 1950s as a time of unquestioning conformity to rigid social structures, as a solid economic base was built following the ravages of World War II. The 1960s were of course very different, and I am glad that my teens occurred then, and not in the 1950s.
Wonderful calming music before the days of being told don't eat this or don't drink this before the nanny state of awful radio adverts.
chet atkins ... and even more awful synthetic music!
These were superb pieces, by composers like Eric Coates, for example, which we do not seem to hear anymore as used for programs. No, so often it is something minimal which just HAS to use a drum kit and very little musical content. Generalisms are wrong, (except that one!) but I think some of you know what I mean.
Puffing Billy the theme to Uncle Macs Childrens Favorites on a Saturday morning
@Mancunian6 thanks for the info about The Typewriter and Leroy Anderson, but isn't Sleigh Ride actually from Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé?
I loved radio Luxeburge Dan Dare
Okay, in case "cam6617" wants to know what THESE ones are... (1) The Ovaltinys (nowadays known as Ovalteenies, but this was the late FORTIES!) Song. It was actually Radio Luxembourg (2) oh dear... I THINK it was Two-Way Family Favourites and was called "With A Song In My Heart"(?) (3) ...has me BEAT (4) I'm pretty sure this is Housewives' Choice (5) The TUNE is David Rose's "Typewriter (something)" but I can't recall what Auntie used it for! DAMN! I really AM getting old!!!
@discotecaotonal You may have found out by now but the music you refer to is ' Television March ' by one of the greatest British Composers of ' light classical music ', Eric Coates.It was commisioned to herald the introduction of the world's first high-definition TV service in 1936.Hope this helps !.Roger.
Surely No. 3 is composed by Eric Coates. its too much like his other marches. I think it was used to introduce Television Newsreel which was on about 6pm in 1947 ish. No 4 was the Intro to "Children's Choice" which occupied the "Housewives Choice" slot on BBC Light Programme at 9.05 am but on a Saturday
Can anyone please inform me of the title of the theme which starts at 7.07? Its used in many productions but the name escapes me.
I used to wonder..what is BFPO?
British Forces Post Office
British Forces Posted Overseas
British Forces Post Office
British Forces Post Office
I want to know the title and orchestra the theme begins minute 3, second 46.
This melody remember me radio news program in Santiago de Chile, in the fifties.
Thank you.
Lovely bit of history and is it me or does it sound like The Ovaltineys are saying TH-cam ?
What was the second tune after family favourites and what was the programme?
@charade97 I forgot to mention the year which was about 1950-52
What is it that is on at 0:59?
Wonderful ....still drink Ovaltine to this day !
I recorded these for myself, long before I began uploading - and failed to make a LIST! But see further down the comments - generous commenters have filled them in for me.
...if we are talking the Fifties, I DO seem to recall "The Typewriter" being used as the sig-tune of SOMETHING - but my poor old brain cannot remember what (and Wiki does not know either).
It may even have been a BBC TV prog - like something to do with newspapers? Anyone have any more ideas?
+morpheusatloppers: re: "The typewriter" - I can't quite remember either, but it might have been some sort of programme where people wrote in commenting about programmes (like "Points of View" on the telly). I have a feeling that children wrote in ...maybe there was a kids version ... I have a feeling that it sounded like it was only "posh" children who wrote in (or who got their letters read out).
But I may be imagining this ...
As I remember The Typewriter was used for a comedy series about an advertising agencey; 'Something to Shout About' I think was its title. Any way the introduction said, "You're about to hear the only advertising programme on the BBC..." ...etc....
Is this this available on CD? It's wonderful.
Oh - and in England, it was the theme for "Children's Favourites"...
If my poor old memory serves me correctly, Prokofiev's Troika from Lt. Kijé was popularly entitled Winter Sleigh Ride and I can't remember ever hearing lyrics for it, as opposed to Sleigh Ride. And not that I'ld want to criticize the generous contributor but yes, a list would be just great!
True. And original melodies in 1980, Pop Music in 1990 - and even Dance Music soon after the Millennium. It's all in the past now. (American filmed drama is still good, though - as is British panel comedy - and Baby Boomer movies look set to start reeling in the remakes, sequels, "prequels", no-brain actioners, FX movies, 3D computer animations and spinoff movies that have bedevilled our cinemas for years - as the kids tire of them, in favour of those iPads they have now). So it's not ALL bad!
I think we spent half of our listening life trying to tune luxy in, not realising then what the cause of it was.
We kids did have our own music channel and the BBC didn't like that, they even tried to get it closed down. What a lot of stuffed shirts in those days.
My Mum and Dad only used to listen to the Light Programme in the Fifties - and I was too short to retune the radio - so no!
😭 I WANT MY MUM...
what's the tune that starts at 3.47 please..what signatune tune was it... what programme?
Was The programme "Family Favourites" (which had evolved from "Forces Favourites")?
The name "Two Way Family Favourites" comes to mind as well, but not sure if that was just a different name for the same programme, or some variation.
Everything about the fifties seemed to hark back to the war in one way or another...my parents were always talking about it....and so were everyone else's, apparently.
The first tune at 1.00 is 2 way family favourites...words were added the song was called With a Song in My heart.....thanks for trying though.
Although Wikipedia is no more reliable than TH-cam comments :-) this entry seems to confirm that it was originally called "Family Favourites", and had succeeded the wartime programme "Forces Favourites".
I'm struggling to remember the exact significance of the "Two Way" though. Was it that they had a presenter in both Germany as well as London, so forces members could request songs for people at home, as well as the other way around (which was presumably the original intention)? I suppose more advanced broadcasting technology made this easier than it would have been when the programme started.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Favourites
The song appears to have come originally from a 1929 Rogers and Hart musical.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_a_Song_in_My_Heart_(song)
Correct
PLEASE could someone tell me what the theme is at 07:06 ? It featured in the recent Antiques Road Trip show as incidental music and the BBC are far too up their own anuses (anii ?) to research it.
Puffing' Billy