When I'm Cleaning Windows
 | This article needs more citations. (September 2011) |
| "When I'm Cleaning Windows" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by George Formby | ||||
| B-side | "Keep Your Seats Please" | |||
| Released | November 1936 | |||
| Recorded | 27 September 1936 | |||
| Genre | Comedy | |||
| Length | 2:56 | |||
| Label | Regal Zonophone | |||
| Songwriters |
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| George Formby singles chronology | ||||
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"When I'm Cleaning Windows" (also known as "The Window Cleaner") is a comedy song performed by English comic, actor and ukulele player George Formby. It first appeared in the 1936 film Keep Your Seats, Please. The song was credited as written by Formby, Harry Gifford and Fred E. Cliffe. Formby performed the song in A♭ in the film; for the single release, the key was changed to B♭.
Following the success of the song, he recorded another version of the song, entitled "The Window Cleaner (No. 2)". This song uses similar orchestration to the original version, and it is about further observations which were seen on a window cleaning round.
The song's lyrics were considered racy for the time, and it was consequently banned for radio play by the BBC. The corporation's director general John Reith stated that "if the public wants to listen to Formby singing his disgusting little ditty, they'll have to be content to hear it in the cinemas, not over the nation's airwaves"; Formby, and his wife and manager Beryl Ingham, were dismayed with the block on the song. In May 1941, Ingham informed the BBC that the song was a favourite of the royal family, particularly Queen Mary, while a statement by Formby pointed out that "I sang it before the King and Queen at the Royal Variety Performance". The BBC relented and started to broadcast the song.
The record's sales were so successful that Regal Zonophone awarded Formby the first silver disc for sales of over 100,000 copies.
References
- ↑ "When I'm Cleaning Windows". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
- ↑ "30 songs banned by the BBC". The Daily Telegraph. 11 July 2014. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
- ↑ Bret, David (1999). George Formby: A Troubled Genius. London: Robson Books. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-86105-239-1.
- 1 2 Fisher, John (1975). George Formby. London: Woburn-Futura. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-7130-0139-6.
- ↑ Smart, Sue; Bothway Howard, Richard (2011). It's Turned Out Nice Again!: The Authorized Biography of the Two George Formbys, Father and Son. Ely, Cambridgeshire: Melrose Books. pp. 124–126, 159. ISBN 978-1-907732-59-1.
- ↑ Bret, David (2014). George Formby: An Intimate Biography of the Troubled Genius. [S.l.]: Lulu Press Inc. ISBN 978-1291872200. OCLC 980520969.
- ↑ "Alan's treasured possessions". The George Formby Society. Archived from the original on 19 September 2017. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
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