Lyr Req: Theme from 'The Liver Birds' (BBC sitcom)

Subject: Lyr Req: Theme tune to tv shoe 'The Lier birds'
From: rhyzla
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 02:39 PM

Does anyone remember the them to tv prog 'The Liver birds' in uk in 70s(?) and what it was called and if it has lyrics?

Barry

Subject: Lyr Req: TV show 'LIVERBIRDS'
From: rhyzla
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 02:40 PM

Bloody 'ell, me spellings up the creak!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Theme tune to tv shoe 'The Lier birds'
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 02:47 PM

The words that were used on the TV programme went something like

Whats got four legs, walks peculier
Talks with all the choicest words
What's got four arms, loves to grab you
Answer is two Liver Birds

If you're standing on the corner
All alone and feeling low
Liver Birds'll come and grab you
Singing ee i ad ee o

I think they were sung by the Scaffold (Lily the Pink & Thank u very much)

Based on the song:
On a mountain stands a lady
Where it is I do not know (or Who she is I do not know)
All she wants is gold and silver
All she wants is a nice young man.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Theme tune to tv shoe 'The Lier birds'
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 03:03 PM

You beat me to it Mark. By the time I had typed out the words, you had already posted. As I remember the tune was followed by a couple of spoken chat-up lines between a lad and a Liver Bird:

Are yer dancin'?
Are yer askin' ?
I'm askin'.
I'm dancin'.


Doug C

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: TV show 'LIVERBIRDS'
From: PennyBlack
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 08:50 PM

"On the Mountain Stands a Lady" sung by The Scaffold, written by Mike McCartney (aka Mike McGear) Paul's Brother.

based on a Street/Skipping rhyme:-

On the mountain stands a lady,
Who she is I do not know.
All llshe wants is gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young man,

So call in my very best friend,
very best friend, very best friend,
Call in my very best friend,
While I go go out to play.

But can't find the words in total although I know they're on a few CDs (TV themes etc.) have sent a couple of emails out to the people who should know! and will pass on any replies I get.

good luck

PB

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: TV show 'LIVERBIRDS'
From: Little Robyn
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 04:42 AM

It's a kids chant - for skipping to, I think.
It was on the record 1,2,3, and a zing, zing, zing, recorded back in the 50s.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: TV show 'LIVERBIRDS'
From: Flash Company
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 09:21 AM

Something about 'Liver Birds will come and get ya, Singin' Ee Aye Addio'

FC

Subject: Lyr Add: LIVER BIRDS - Theme (The Scaffold)
From: GUEST,Dave Roberts, Salt Town Poets
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 11:19 AM

Here's the words of the single, as transcribed from
'Thank U Very Much - the Very best Of The Scaffold' (EMI Gold)
It's very much a sixties song, as you'll see.
Incidentally, I know that the last line in verse 3 doesn't scan. On the record Scaffold get round this by make the word 'go' into two syllables (if you can imagine such a thing).

Pigeons, widgeons, seagulls, sparrows,
All the birds come here to nest,
But of all God's little creatures,
Liverpool birds beat all the rest.

Luton girls have lovely voices,
Sheffield girls make finest cooks,
Glasgow girls are good at football,
Liverpool girls win out on looks.

Golden skin all soft and creamy,
Lippiest lips you ever saw
Mini skirts and skinny sweaters
Legs that make you go cor!

(repeat verse 1 twice)

Ipswich girls will make you tingle,
Stockton girls are nice to kiss,
Cardiff girls will love and leave you
Liverpool girls they take the (biscuit)

There's sexy girls in Copenhagen,
Nagasaki, Rome and Paris
None compare with Liverpool's,
Ask David Bailey or Richard Harris.

This is not the same as the TV theme, which went (from memory) something like:

What's got four legs, walks peculiar,
Talks in all the choicest words,
(Something I can't remember)
Answer is two Liver birds.

And it always had the memorable dialogue exchange:
You dancin'?
You askin'?
I'm askin'
I'm dancin'
during the closing credits.

Dave Roberts

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: TV show 'LIVERBIRDS'
From: rhyzla
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 12:14 PM

Fantastic response - thank you everybody - I have also google'd it and found a lot of references!

Thanks again

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: TV show 'LIVERBIRDS'
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 25 Oct 04 - 02:17 PM

If you wander around Liverpool at night you'll notice the girls haven't changed a bit! "Lippiest lips you ever saw
Mini skirts and skinny sweaters"

What goes around, comes around!

Sal

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: TV show 'LIVERBIRDS'
From: GUEST,Bronxbetty
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 08:31 AM

The song words are:
On a mountain stands a lady
Who she is I do not know.
All she wants is gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young beau.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: TV show 'LIVERBIRDS'
From: Darowyn
Date: 29 May 09 - 02:52 PM

From the deepest recesses of my memory, I found myself singing this to my grandson recently.
This version is a little more elaborate, and goes to a circle game similar to "The Farmer wants a Wife", rather than skipping.
I remember teaching it and playing the game with my class of eight-year-olds when I used to be a Junior School teacher. We got it from a schools music programme on TV.
Little Harry confuses a lot of people by wandering round singing "Bread and butter and beetles, and I will have some" especially at meal times.
Cheers
Dave

FROM THE SINGING GAME by IONA & PETER OPIE (pub 1985)

Stands a lady on the mountain,
Who she is I do not know.
All she wants is gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young man.
Madam will you walk,
Madam will you talk,
Madam will you marry me?

No!

Not if I buy you a nice armchair
To sit in the garden when you take the air?

No!

Not if I buy you a nice silver spoon
To feed your baby in the afternoon?

No!

Not if I buy you a nice straw hat
With three coloured ribbons hanging down the back?

Yes!

Go to church, luv,
Go to church, luv, farewell.
Go to church, luv,
Go to church, luv, farewell.

Back from church, luv,
Back from church, luv, farewell.
Back from church, luv,
Back from church, luv, farewell.

What’s for breakfast, luv,
What’s for breakfast, luv, farewell?
What’s for breakfast, luv,
What’s for breakfast, luv, farewell?

Bread and butter and watercress,
Bread and butter and watercress,
Bread and butter and watercress,
And you shall have some.

What’s for dinner, luv,
What’s for dinner, luv, farewell?
What’s for dinner, luv,
What’s for dinner, luv, farewell?

Bread and butter and beetles,
Bread and butter and beetles,
Bread and butter and beetles,
And you shall have some.

What’s for supper, luv,
What’s for supper, luv, farewell?
What’s for supper, luv,
What’s for supper, luv, farewell?

Bread and butter and rats,
Bread and butter and rats,
Bread and butter and rats,
And you shall have some.


At the beginning of the 1970s only a few lines of this game-song seem to have been remembered; but in 1975-6 versions such as the above were collected in quick succession from 9 year olds in Salford, from an 8 year old at Wool in Dorset and from 10 year olds in Oxford…
The words are virtually those of the game. "There stands a lady", published by Cecil Sharp in 1912 and most of the children had learned the song from the TV schools programme "Music Time". .. This extended version belongs to the period 1920-25; but the first four lines have been continuously popular for the skipping rope, as well as forming the basis of a simple ring game first noted in 1913.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Theme from 'The Liver Birds' (BBC sitcom)
From: GUEST,Corina
Date: 17 Apr 16 - 09:02 AM

Mike McCartney brother of Sir Paul, did the all the whistling in the theme tune for the Liver Birds

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Theme from 'The Liver Birds' (BBC sitcom)
From: GUEST
Date: 24 May 17 - 12:31 PM

https://www.shazam.com/track/6013798/liver-birds-theme-from-the-tv-series-the-liver-birds