Om Pom Push

A very quick post today, as I'm about to take a much-needed week off - heading with a bunch of friends to Welsh Wales to make the most of the dying days of summer. 

Today's horror seems to be the only 45 released by the late comedian Frank Carson, the genial Irishman whose catchphrase 'It's the way I tell 'em' had them rolling in the aisles in the 70s thanks to the popularity of such TV shows as The Comedians. Another regular on that show - Mike Reid - had a fair bit of success with his recordings and so had many other comedians. So why not our Frank.

Well, probably because the chosen song is a pile of crap.

Based on a playground clapping game rhyme (eeney-meeny-macca-racca...) which I can still recall from my now-distant childhood, Ip Dip Chibberdy Dip is an awful, awful record. So awful in fact that when Decca issued the single in Holland the company couldn't even be bothered to check on who the artist was - pasting a picture of fellow comedian Freddie Starr on the sleeve instead! 

A year later the same song was issued on a 45 in Europe by the female trio Cool Breeze, credited to the same arrangement and production team of Solomon and Blackwell . I've not been able to track that version down (yet!) but I'll bet it's exactly the same recording with Frank's vocals erased and Cool Breeze's slathered over the top.

Anyway, for now enjoy both sides of Frank Carson's 1973 non-hit Ip Dip Chibberdy Dip and Try It, You'll Like It.