55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of
my life...so far.
Modelling my Sunday best in 1962.
1962 was a good year for Bernard Cribbins. He scored two big hit singles with 'Hole in the Ground' and 'Right Said Fred', popular tunes on the BBC's Family Favourites radio programme throughout my childhood. Often overlooked nowadays though, is Bernard's third hit that year, 'Gossip Calypso'. For some reason this one is vividly etched in my memory. Perhaps it's Cribbins' breathless rat-a-tat delivery or maybe it's the unique use of the phrase 'oxyacetylene welder' in a pop record, but this song has always stuck.
'Gossip Calypso' was written by Trevor Peacock. Latterly a noted TV actor, in the 1960s Peacock penned songs for the likes of Joe Brown, Adam Faith and Billy Fury in addition to the bona-fide hit, 'Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter' for Herman's Hermits.
