The Hole in the Ground
"The Hole in the Ground" | |
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Single by Bernard Cribbins with music directed by Gordon Franks | |
B-side | "Folk Song" |
Released | 1962 |
Format | Single |
Genre | Comic song |
Label | Parlophone |
Songwriter(s) | Ted Dicks |
Lyricist(s) | Myles Rudge |
Producer(s) | George Martin |
"The Hole in the Ground" was a comic song which was written by Myles Rudge and composed by Ted Dicks. When recorded by Bernard Cribbins and released by EMI on the Parlophone label in 1962, it was a number nine hit in the UK Singles Chart and remains his highest charting and the most successful of his three hit singles, staying on the chart for 13 weeks.[1][2][3]
The song is about a dispute between a workman digging a hole and an officious busybody wearing a bowler hat. This exemplifies British class conflict of the era and Cribbins switches between a working class Cockney accent, in which he drops his aitches, and a middle class accent for the gentleman in the bowler hat.
- Don't dig it there, dig it elsewhere.
- You're digging it round and it ought to be square.
- The shape of it's wrong, it's much too long,
- And you can't put a hole where a hole don't belong.
Reception
Noël Coward, who wrote many comic songs himself, chose the record as one of his Desert Island Discs. He said: "I think the only one I would never get sick of is 'Hole in the Ground', because I could translate it into French as I walked up and down on the beach."[4]
References
- ↑ David Roberts. British Hit Singles & Albums. Guinness World Records Limited
- ↑ Jon Dennis (2 May 2012), "Old music: Bernard Cribbins – Right Said Fred", The Guardian
- ↑ Colin Larkin (2000), The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Oxford University Press, p. 619, ISBN 9780195313734
- ↑ Sean Magee (2012), Desert Island Discs: 70 years of castaways, Random House, p. 119, ISBN 9781448127450