Flanders & Swann Song

This is going to be one of those respites from politics today.  And to cleanse the mind, soul and spirit, I can think of few things that does that for me better than Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, who readers of these page know I dearly, dearly love.  And for this, I'm going to focus on just one of their songs -- an odd one, to be sure, not remotely one of their best, though (oddly) one of theirs which has had a long life, especially in England.  And one of their most oddly joyous.  And we'll delve into some of those versions.

I’ve periodically written about and posted songs by Flanders & Swann.  But not for a long while.  As a bit of background,  Michael Flanders and Donald Swann were a British team who wrote comic songs (and occasionally a few serious ones) and came to fame for a London revue, At the Drop of a Hat, in 1957 where it ran for 808 performances.  It came to Broadway and ran for half a year.  And then toured the world --  I recall reading mention that it was for 1,500 performances.  In 1963 , they did a follow-up revue, At the Drop of Another Hat,” which also later went to Broadway, and CBS aired as a trimmed-down hour TV special in 1967.  (Which you can see here.)
 
Flanders (who wrote the superb lyrics, smart and often brilliantly rhymed, and did most of the talking, which included a few deeply witty, erudite monologue sketches) was a Peter Ustinov-like personality.  They looked similar, sounded somewhat similar, and were both very smart in their work.  He also had polio and performed in a wheelchair.  Donald Swann was an accomplished pianist (who also wrote several operas and a song cycle based on poems from The Lord of the Rings, which was called “The Road Goes Ever On.”  His persona was a quiet, shy, scholarly elf who you sort of sensed might be a lunatic under the surface, waiting to get out.

They obviously aren’t well-known today, and most of their songs have only lived within their shows and in the cast albums, but they do have two songs that have had a bit of life outside – “Madeira, M’Dear” and “The Hippopotamus Song” (the latter of which ended their shows and had the audience join in on the chorus.  It’s not especially known in the U.S., but was pretty popular in England.).   To my happy surprise, when looking for some videos to send to a friend, I found a lot of their songs still performed by others, most amateur, but quite a few not – including their song, “The Gnu,” done on “The Muppet Show.”  And also -- “The Hippopotamus Song” performed by (among many others) famed Welsh opera baritone Bryn Terfel; the Arion Male Voice Choir of Victoria, Canada; and at the BBC Proms (!) …with the audience, as always, joining in.
 
I’ll post “The Gnu” later, but for now, this is “The Hippopotamus Song.”  Two versions, actually.
 
As I’ve noted in past articles, there isn’t much video of Flanders & Swann.  Michael Flanders didn’t particularly care for TV.  But fortunately there are some exceptions – notably that CBS TV special.  But also, there is an excellent BBC TV documentary that I’ve posted here which has black-and-white video of some of their early At the Drop of the Hat – which is where this version of “The Hippopotamus Song” comes from.  I thought it would be only proper to show the two fellows themselves singing it first.
 
By the way, when I said above that Michael Flanders was known for brilliant rhymes – listen to how many rhymes he comes up with for the word “hippopotamus.”  Coming up with just one is impressive enough. 

And as a wonderful follow-up, here is the song sung by performers at the 2011 BBC Proms.  And without any promptings – since, as I said, the song was well-known in England – note how much of the huge crowd joins in on the chorus.  No, not everyone, but this was about 50 years after the song was introduced. 

I was going to leave it at that -- but I can’t not include the great Bryn Terfel with his wonderfully enthusiastic and even a bit dramatic performance accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic. (And all the better, it includes the third verse, often left out -- though it's on the original Broadway cast recording)
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And yes, there's a bonus.  Think of it as an encore –
 
When Flanders & Swann did their follow-up revue, At the Drop of Another Hat, they ended it, as well, with their song about The Hippopotamus – but not the original number.  Instead, they wrote a new verse that brought everyone up to date on what was going on with the fellow (and another great rhyme for “hippopotamus).  As the audience, with little prompting, joined in full-voice on the chorus.  Here’s how they ended the show and their 1967 CBS TV special.