Nice though it is, Al, the tune you sing bears very little resemblance to the original.

This is a song we used to sing although I must admit that the band I sung it with did disband in around 1977. Being involved with running one of the biggest clubs in the South Manchester area during that period, besides ourselves, the two main exponents of the song were the Macalmans and Alan Bell's group, the Taverners, themselves. Certainly, the first recording of the song was by the Macalmans and I honestly don't remember whether the Taverners ever recorded it - unlike the Macalmans, they weren't a fully professional outfit.

At the time, I do remember that Alan was involved in writing songs for a television series and it may have been recorded for that although I suspect that the song predates that.