Henry's Songbook

Chorus:
Dinner was roast beef, potatoes piled high
Followed by ice-cream and crusty fruit pie
We'd settle down to let Sunday drift by
Let Sunday drift by

Sundays were family days I recall
Sleeping in late, no siren call
Papers that showered like snow in the hall
Biscuits and tea in my bed

Dad would rise late, never bothered to shave
The street was as empty and cold as the grave
Then bands would come round playing Souls To Be Saved
And I'd love the slide trombone

Old Billy Cotton and Breezy would sing
Family favourites, well they meant everything
'Life with the Lyons' and jokes that would bring
Smiles as the rain came down

Muffins and marmalade toasted for tea
Feet up on cushions so we could see
Eamonn and Gilbert and those who would be
Asking us, What's My Line?

Hot cup of cocoa and the book by my bed
Tomorrow is Monday, a schoolday instead
But I always carried the thought in my head
Next Sunday would soon be around

[1980:] This is the story of a traditional English Sunday as lived in Aston in Birmingham in those wonderful halcyon days of the 'fifties. In these days of austerity, a lot of you probably have forgotten what roast beef was. It was something that existed before soya bean extract textured to look like it, and it would lie steaming on a special platter all to itself at Sunday lunchtime. And come about ten minutes past two, Dad would come home from the pub - as the neut! And he would carve for you some slices of this roast beef. Because of the state he was in they were actually slabs. But he called them slices, and you would hold out your plate, and he would slap these slices on your plate with the ritual incantatory words which in Aston in Birmingham in those days were, 'Get this down your neck, you little bugger! I've worked all week for it!' And believe me, you did. (Harvey Andrews, intro 'Brand New Day')

[1997:] A typical successful song-plugger was Young Bill Cotton, partner with Johnny Johnson of a small music publishing firm in Denmark Street. Young Bill was called 'Young' to differentiate him from his father, the veteran band leader (and racing motorist) Billy Cotton. (Frank Muir, A Kentish Lad 130)

[1998:] The references are all to day time radio programmes or evening T.V. when Britain had just one T.V. channel and one Radio station for light entertainment. The whole nation tuned in.

The Billy Cotton band show was a lunchtime radio programme. Cotton was an ex racing driver turned band leader. Breezy was Alan Breeze, his male vocalist. Life with the Lyons, was a comedy half hour based on the Lyon family. Ben Lyon and his wife Bebe Daniels were Canadians who had come over during the war. 'What's my Line' was a panel game in which four panelists, including Gilbert Harding, a grumpy old character, had to guess the jobs of the contestants. Eamonn Andrews was the compere. (Harvey Andrews, pr. comm. 9 Jan)