Lyr Req: School in Cheltenham (from Tsai Chin)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: School in Cheltenham (from Tsai Chin)
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 12 - 01:37 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fZUdwIo9LM&feature=related

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: School in Cheltenham (from Tsai Chin)
From: GUEST,Gary
Date: 21 Jan 10 - 05:06 AM

Desmond Carrington played this song on 'All Time Greats' a few years ago. If enough people contact his show (Dave Aylott- Producer) he may play it again.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: School in Cheltenham (from Tsai Chin)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 05:33 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsai_Chin_(actress)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: School in Cheltenham (from Tsai Chin)
From: GUEST,dogsbody
Date: 26 Jun 09 - 04:51 AM

Tasha
I have it on a 45rpm record backed by Tsai Chin singing "any old iron" in a mixture of English and Chinese. Are you still looking for a recording?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: School in Cheltenham (from Tsai Chin)
From: GUEST,Julie
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 01:04 AM

I went to the Cheltenham Ladies' College in the 70's.I remember doing a synchronized swimming display to this song!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: School in Cheltenham (from Tsai Chin)
From: GUEST,ChrisZ78
Date: 21 Sep 08 - 05:26 AM

The song is part of Tsai Chin's first Decca albums, "The World of Tsai Chin", Decca LK 4501, rec.1962. Turns up every few weeks on Ebay and is well worth buying if you have a working record-player. Never on CD yet!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: GUEST,Richard Brown
Date: 28 May 08 - 11:38 AM

I've also been trying to find this song for a very long time. I do remember it being played one Saturday morning on the BBC, in the days when they played record requests then. It was certainly Tsai Chin who sang it. So it must have been recorded on acetate somewhere and be languishing in somebody's record collection, somewhere.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: GUEST,Tasha
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 08:15 AM

I went to school in Cheltenham and I'd never heard of this song until my grandmother asked me to find it. It's fantasic! Very jolly hockey sticks!

Is there any way I can get a recording of it, as I can't find it on iTunes....

Any help much appreciated!

Tasha

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:51 PM

cf the song from Cheltehham Ladies College's rivals We are from Roedean:

With a verse directed at Cheltenham:

Those girls from Cheltenham, they are just sissies,
The get worked up over one or two kisses,
It takes wax candles,
And long broom handles,
To rouse the girls at Roedean School.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Dave Hunt
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:48 PM

Polly said"I'm off to Warwick FF this weekend" I think you'll find the festival this w'end is at Cheltenham!
Dave

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: GUEST,thnidu
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:02 PM

"And at night our Head used to **WHAT** us in bed"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: GUEST,Zander Nyrond
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 10:43 PM

It looks as though it must have been sung on a programme called "The Five Foot Nine Show," broadcast on 31 January 1964. At least, that's the only listing I can find for Tsai Chin in a BBC comedy programme. I remember distinctly watching it*, and have been looking for the lyrics ever since. Thank you for proving that I didn't imagine it!

*Word order intentional. One didn't watch anything distinctly in those days...

Zander

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Polly Garter
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 04:57 PM

Can't wait to hear of your audience's reaction!

Oh, and I just noticed a typo ...
I missed out the word "in" in the lines "And at night our Head used to tuck us in bed" ... sorry!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Polly Squeezebox
Date: 24 Jul 05 - 01:42 PM

Polly Gator - Thank you, thank you, thank you. That is exactly the song I meant - and what memories it's brought back already. Now just to relearn the words again and let it loose on unsuspecting folk.

Polly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 23 Jul 05 - 01:11 PM

It doesn't count, of course, but my high school near Philladelphia, Pennsylvania was called Cheltenham High School (Cheltenham Township). I never knew about this song. Great! We did not learn such interesting things as in the songs above.....too bad.
--Linda

Subject: Lyr Add: SCHOOL IN CHELTENHAM (from Tsai Chin)
From: GUEST,Polly Garter
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 04:34 PM

Hey Polly! I have saved you some work! A kind person lent me a tape of the song and I've now transcribed it, as follows, It dates from the early sixties and has all the flavour of a saucy seaside postcard - you know the kind I mean!

SCHOOL IN CHELTENHAM
As sung by TSAI CHIN

I went to school in Cheltenham
At a fashionable Ladies' College
Where I learnt what's what
And acquired a lot of
Exceedingly practical knowledge

Our reading; writing, 'rithmetic
Was positively mediocre
But we got pretty slick
At the three card trick
And we played a pretty hand of poker

We were rather weak at our Latin and Greek
But we worked with considerable fervour
And we had to cram
For our English exam
On Lady Chatterley's Lover.

I loved my school in Cheltenham
With the chestnut trees so shady.
And I now embrace
All the charm and grace
Of a typical English lady.

I shared a room in Cheltenham
With a daughter of the landed gentry
Whose most refined
Little one-tracked mind
Was completely elementary

Our marks in French and algebra
Were a series of disasters
But at forging cheques
Or at S-E-X
We were absolute past masters

In the upper sixth form we were studying form
And we put on the money with the porter
And at night our Head
Used to tuck us bed
With an outsized whisky and water

Let's give three cheers for Cheltenham
Where the chestnut trees are shady
Where I learnt of vice
And all things nice
Like a typical English lady

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Polly Squeezebox
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 05:37 PM

I've been very lazy over this one - but it has been in my mind again recently, so I'll try. I'm off to Warwick FF this weekend, then overworking as usual the following week. However, I then have a whole week off work without planning to go anywhere (Wow - can't remember the last time that happened). I've already put by three new songs to learn in that week, and will also get around to getting the words of this off the recording of the show we did.

Pauline

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: GUEST,Polly Garter
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 01:42 PM

Hey Pauline!
Do you think you COULD transcribe all the lyrics of IWTSIC? I have been trying desperately for a long, long time to find them!
Thanks in advance.
Polly

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 10:38 AM

Do I detect the influence of The Duke of Bedford's Book of Snobs, Paul?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: GUEST,Paul Burke
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 09:56 AM

This was one of Rory Heap's favourites:

I'm just a typically English girl
From a typically English home,
Born and bred in Borehamwood, Herts,
But I've travelled, at least,
To points both south and east,
To the Continent and other foreign parts.

I went to school in Switzerland, and also Cheltenham,
At examinations failed to get a pass.
Daddy says it isn't funny,
I'm fat and lazy just like Mummy,
On the Lower Side of Upper Middle Class.

Anyone know who wrote it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Flash Company
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 09:44 AM

This was recorded by Sheila Hancock at the same time as the Giving up Smoking song, regrettably I don't have the words although I do remember they were taught to play hockey and tennis and a very good hand of poker.
Chorus included 'So give three cheers for Cheltenham, where the chestnut trees are shady'

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 04:17 AM

I can remember it all, apart from the words and the tune! Definitely not a rugger song; it was recorded by a young lady with a fraightfuly cut-glass accent and a deadpan delivery, and safe enough for the BBC to broadcast. I've been hanging around for the words, so you'll have to dig out the gramophone Pauline.

Have you got a cassette recorder? (Or even a reel-to-reel job?) It's easier for transcribing words than a record player, as you can stop/start/rewind so easily and without worrying about your delicate stylus and playing surface. And if you get a partner, one of you can write down the odd-numbered lines, and the other the even-numbered lines: this gives you twice as much time to write.

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Polly Squeezebox
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 06:24 PM

Must be a female rugby club!!! I've done general searches using the words I can remember. Looks like I'll have to get out the LP and the obsolete equipment and practise my, very rusty, shorthand. I'll post the lyrics here when I have them all.

Pauline

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Tradsinger
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 12:56 PM

I live in Cheltenham and so am excited that we have our own national anthem! It sounds like a rugby club song to me. Have you checked out sites for bawdy songs?

Gwilym

Subject: Lyr Req: I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
From: Polly Squeezebox
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 03:16 PM

After an exceedingly good sing and some very excellent port I suddenly part-remembered this song on Saturday night (from the recesses of my brain and from about 35 years ago!). I can remember that it started:

I (We) went to school in Cheltenham
At a fashionable ladies college
Where we learned what's what and acquired a lot
Of exceeding practical knowledge.

,,,,,,,

I loved my school in Cheltenham
Where the chestnut trees are shady
Where we learned of vice and all thing nice
Like a well accomplished lady

I do have it on an LP that we made of the show we were in at the time - but that means getting out the old 'gramophone', plugging it up (????) and trying to transcribe the words. So, decided you wonderful people were probably the soft option - I'm sure you won't let me down.

Thanks in anticipation.

Pauline