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HELLO CHILDREN ....... EVERYWHERE

The 'Play Rhymes' topic made me think of a favourite Saturday morning children's request programme on the radio in the 50's and 60's and although I can remember a lot of the songs I went searching for an LP I bought my kids in the 80's which features 22 of the lovely innocent children's songs that were played when I was little. Needless to say, my own children didn't enjoy listening to the music that I grew up with but the LP is still here in my collection! The signature tune of the radio programme was 'Puffin Billy' Danny Kaye featured a lot with songs such as 'The King's New Clothes', 'Little White Duck' and 'The Ugly Duckling'. Then there was Alma Cogan singing 'Twenty Tiny Fingers' and 'Where Will the Dimple Be?'.

And how about

Nellie The Elephant

Teddy Bears Picnic,

When Father Papered the Parlour,

I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat,

I Know an Old Lady,

How Much is that Doggy in the Window

You're a Pink Toothbrush

In the Middle of the House

The Laughing Policeman

The Runaway Train

Three Billy Goats Gruff

and

Gilly Gilly Ossenfefferkatzenellenbogen By the Sea !!

Ah! Must get the old record deck working again

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I don't know if they're still available, but you could at one time get 3 CDs entitled 'Junior Choice' volumes 1 to 3.

There were two versions of The Runaway Train. On vol 1 of these CDs it's sung by a Vernon Dalhart, but the one I remember was by Michael Holliday.

Don't forget Robin Hood, sung by Dick James - do they still play that at the City Ground??

Also - Little Boy Fishin' off a Wooden Pier by Shirley Abicair

They're Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace by Ann Stephens

Little Red Monkey

The Owl and the Pussycat by Elton Hayes

Tubby the Tuba

The Little Shoemaker by Petula Clark

Sparky and the Magic Piano

Trains by Reginald Gardiner (not actually a song)

Not all of these are on those CDs

You know the thing about so many of these, which I think was the attraction for children? They tell a story. Think of the Billy Goats Gruff for example.

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My CD's are at the other house, so can't look them up, but I also remember Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud [was it The Hippopotamus Song] Oh, and Inch Worm by Danny Kaye.

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I remember listening to Children's Hour with Uncle Mac, though I always thought him to be not the kind avuncular person that I thought he should be, seemed very bluff and of course VERY middle class BBC which did not endear him to me, and I wondered if other kids felt the same.

The only items I recall were Toytown, vocalised by Uncle Mac, and the Adventures of Norman and Henry Bones, the boy detectives with Charles Hawtrey as Norman and the wonderful Jennings at School stories.

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Commo, everyone on the radio and telly had 'BBC' voices, no regional dialects in those days. I'm so old I remember when the announcers on the telly wore tuxedo's for the men, and evening gowns for the ladies!

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'They're Changing Guard At Buckingham Palace' was, I think, originally recorded by Petula Clarke and gave rise to the old joke; 'I don't know what this Alice is but it must be serious. Christopher Robin went down with it!' I too remember Children's Hour with Uncle Mac and though I recall some of the serials being exciting and food for the imagination, I can't bring the details to mind now. Other records broadcast at the time were by Spike Jones and his City Slickers (I have a good collection of these on CD now); and who remembers Eamon Andrews and 'The Shifting, Whispering Sands'; 'Life Gets Tedious Don't It' (by ?); 'Ebb Tide' Jerry Collona and Billy Cotton with the song played at the end of Saturday matinees at the Forum, Aspley Lane. 'We Must Have Safety On The Queen's Highway'.

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Commo, those are the 2 I remember the most. Lizzie, I remember the dot going off, also they played God Save the Queen before the dot! [and in the cinemas too, at the end of the night, everyone would scramble to get out quickly, cos once it started, you were stuck, standing still till it finished. Woe betide you if you left while it was playing, dirty looks from our elders]

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tomlinson (#8), it was good to see a mention of Spike Jones and his City Slickers. I sometimes watch him on YouTube and sit at my desk, with headphones on, giggling away like a two year old. It's slapstick comedy with crazy music and I think you've got to be a little nuts to enjoy it.

Commo (#7), when I saw McDonald Hobley and Sylvia Peters mentioned I could remember what they looked like, despite not seeing them since I was a kid. I can also remember Peter Haigh, who had a moustache, and was there with McDonald Hobley and Sylvia Peters.

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Out of interest - can anyone remember when Children's Favourites became Junior Choice? Was it in 1967 when Radio 1 started. along with the other channels becoming Radios 2, 3 and 4?

I seem to remember whenever Uncle Mac had a week or two's break on Children's Favourites he was replaced by Peter Brough and Archie Andrews, and then I think Jim Dale presented it - but was there anyone else between Uncle Mac finishing and Ed Stewart starting with Junior Choice?

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Don't remember Uncle Mac, but I do remember Junior Choice, with Ed Stewpot. He played most of the above and not forgetting Puff The Magic Dragon by Peter Paul and Mary

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The only items I recall were Toytown, vocalised by Uncle Mac, and the Adventures of Norman and Henry Bones, the boy detectives with Charles Hawtrey as Norman and the wonderful Jennings at School stories.

Uncle Mac was Larry the Lamb in Toytown. I remember the other main character was Dennis the Dachshund (with a German accent), then there was 'Mr Mayor, sir' and of course Mr Growser - 'Disgrrrraceful!'

Was there ever a TV version of Toytown? I can't remember. I'm sure it used to be in a comic but can't remember which one.

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Off at a tangent here but a couple of years ago I sat next to a lovely elderly man at a friend's birthday party. He was Air Vice Marshal Larry Lamb who was apparently involved in the Berlin Airlift. And then there's that other Larry Lamb who's on the telly now and again.

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Commo # 16

I used to watch Muffin the Mule too but even at that young age I didn't think much of him ........ he walked about as fluidly as Spotty Dog in the Woodentops !

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We love Muffin, Muffin the Mule,

Dear old Muffin, playing the fool.

We love Muffin, everybody sing,

We love Muffin the Mule .

I always wanted one of the toy Muffin string puppets, but unfortunately Mum and Dad's finances wouldn't run to it!

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Commo & Lizzie M.

I had a Muffin the Mule puppet (second hand & a bit battered). It was metal with red cords attached to parts of his body and legs, with rings to slip over your fingers to make him move around. But you couldn't make him "walk" without jerking the whole thing up and down, just as they did on TV.

With ref to Spike Jones - was it him that did "Horsey keep your tail up, keep the sun out of my eyes"?

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And with ref to Uncle Mac, some Musicians of advanced years often say that their interest in music was triggered (ha ha, anyone want to start a new thread - Kid's teatime cowboy shows?) by the fact that Uncle Mac would slip the occasional Chuck Berry or Little Richard song in. Or was that another kids' radio show?

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A friend at work had the CD of uncle Mac but I didn't have time to listen. But I do remember a lot of the songs, particularly the weird train noises, Max Bygraves and his Pink Toothbrush and also Max Bygraves and High Hopes. Happy (and innocent) days.

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HELLO CHILDREN ....... EVERYWHERE

The 'Play Rhymes' topic made me think of a favourite Saturday morning children's request programme on the radio in the 50's and 60's and although I can remember a lot of the songs I went searching for an LP I bought my kids in the 80's which features 22 of the lovely innocent children's songs that were played when I was little. Needless to say, my own children didn't enjoy listening to the music that I grew up with but the LP is still here in my collection! The signature tune of the radio programme was 'Puffin Billy' Danny Kaye featured a lot with songs such as 'The King's New Clothes', 'Little White Duck' and 'The Ugly Duckling'. Then there was Alma Cogan singing 'Twenty Tiny Fingers' and 'Where Will the Dimple Be?'.

And how about

Nellie The Elephant

Teddy Bears Picnic,

When Father Papered the Parlour,

I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat,

I Know an Old Lady,

How Much is that Doggy in the Window

You're a Pink Toothbrush

In the Middle of the House

The Laughing Policeman

The Runaway Train

Three Billy Goats Gruff

and

Gilly Gilly Ossenfefferkatzenellenbogen By the Sea !!

Ah! Must get the old record deck working again

I have that CD and my grandkids aged 6 and 4 like quite a few of them.

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Donnyred, brilliant. I went back to being an 8 year old sitting next to mum and dad's battered redifusion wireless. If I could just go back. I also remember having to keep quiet (very difficult for me even now) while mum listened to 'Mrs Dale's Diary'.

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