Origins: Little Yellow Roses & Spanish Civil War

Subject: Origins: Little Yellow Roses & Spanish Civil War
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 07:22 PM

LITTLE YELLOW ROSES

In the thread Songs in English about the Spanish Civil War there is a section of posts begun in March 2010 in which a number of Mudcatters tried to establish the provenance of a song called Little Yellow Roses which can be seen here:thread.cfm?ThreadID=128093#yellowroses




I have just received a reply to a letter which I wrote to the actor, writer and songwriter Trevor Peacock enquiring about the origin of the song. I reproduce the letter below, in full.

Dear Geoff,
Re-"Songs in English about the Spanish Civil War"
What a wonderful subject! I hope your searching will lead to a book, or part of a book. I don't think I can help much, but here goes…
Around 56 years ago I was involved writing scripts, and then some songs for BBC TV. The pop world was in its infancy, and I wrote for, amongst others, Joe Brown, The Vernon Girls, Jess Conrad, and Adam Faith. I seem to remember writing Little Yellow Roses for a B side for Adam in about 1962. I wrote the tune and the lyrics, and John Barry did that particular arrangement, as I worked with him a lot. I hadn't heard the song for half a century until your letter arrived. I don't remember writing it for the Spanish Civil War specifically – it was a song for ALL freedom fighters really. So I'm afraid Fay Hield has made the wrong assumption. I'm now wondering if it's registered with PRS, so I'd better check. I hope this clarifies the situation.

Yours, Trevor Peacock

There was a PS written on the back of the envelope which saidYes, fully documented with P.R.S."Little Yellow Roses"

Thank you for giving us the provenance of your song Trevor and thanks to everyone who helped in the chase.

Subject: RE: Origins: Little Yellow Roses & Spanish Civil War
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 03 Aug 12 - 09:03 AM

Fay Hield has posted about Trevor's letter herethread.cfm?threadid=128093#3384492


If anyone does not know the song, here is a great new YouTube video of Fay singing Little Yellow Roses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssc5A9AW-24

Subject: RE: Origins: Little Yellow Roses & Spanish Civil War
From: Reinhard
Date: 03 Aug 12 - 10:50 AM

Not really new, Geoff, it's from July last year :smile:

And Fay's even earlier home recording of Little Yellow Roses has a much better sound.