Videology

A few days ago, I referenced the wonderful British team, Flanders & Swan, who were very popular in the late 1950s and 1960s.  They had a sort of stylish, and incredibly witty cabaret revue with songs they wrote (the outgoing Michael Flanders did the lyrics, the quiet but often-lunatic Donald Swan the music) and monologues by Flanders, who wheeled around the stage in a wheelchair due to polio.  The had two stage shows that began in London's West End and made it to Broadway, At the Drop of a Hat and then a few years later, At the Drop of Another Hat.  The latter show was subsequently broadcast in concert on CBS as a special, which is where this clip comes from.  (You'll notice that since the original lyrics uses the word "flat," which is part of a rhyme and therefore has to be kept, he quickly translates for the American audience.)

I loved (and still love) Flanders & Swan.  They were particularly known for animal songs, though most of their numbers covered a range of other topics.  This is one of their two songs that had a life outside of their shows.  It's "Madeira, M'Dear," that Tony Randall among others performed.  They called it "a song of seduction."