music.wikisort.org - Composition

"'The Flies Crawled Up the Window" is a British song originally sung by the actor Jack Hulbert in the 1932 comedy film Jack's the Boy.[1] The lyrics describe the antics of various flies as they crawl up windows. In the film it is sung by Hulbert's character, Jack Brown, to his disapproving father (Peter Gawthorne) after he has returned drunk from an evening out.[2]

"The Flies Crawled Up the Window"
Song by Jack Hulbert
Released	1932 (1932)
Songwriter(s)	Vivian Ellis

The film proved to be a major success, and the song was equally popular. Hulbert was pursued to the South of France by HMV who persuaded him to release it as a record.[3] The song was later covered by other singers such as Pat O'Malley - sometimes with additional verses added.[4] These are the lyrics I remember from my parents' 78 record of Jack Hulbert. It seems to have been recorded live (in Monte Carlo?) and had a spoken introduction in an exaggeratedly English accent "Madames et Messieurs, pardonnez-moi mais j'ai oublié tous le français que j'ai appris à l'école" Although the title is "The flies crawled up the window" my memory is that their activities are described in the present tense as befits the first verse.

Lyrics

A number of different variations of the song's lyrics exist, including:

References

Bibliography

• Mundy, John. The British Musical Film. Manchester University Press, 2007.
• Sutton, David. A Chorus of Raspberries: British film comedy 1929-1939. University of Exeter Press, 2000.

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