"The Hole in the Ground" | ||||
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Single by Bernard Cribbins | ||||
B-side | "Winkle Picker Shoes" | |||
Released | 1962 | |||
Recorded | 22 December 1961 [1] | |||
Studio | EMI, London [1] | |||
Genre | Comic song | |||
Label | Parlophone | |||
Songwriter(s) | Ted Dicks | |||
Lyricist(s) | Myles Rudge | |||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
Bernard Cribbins singles chronology | ||||
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"The Hole in the Ground" is a comic song written by Myles Rudge and composed by Ted Dicks. When recorded by Bernard Cribbins and released by EMI on the Parlophone label in 1962, it was a number nine hit in the UK Singles Chart. It remains the highest charting and most successful of Cribbins' hit singles, staying on the chart for 13 weeks. [2] [3] [4] The musical accompaniment was directed by Gordon Franks, and the producer was George Martin.
The song is about a dispute between a workman digging a hole and an officious busybody wearing a bowler hat. This exemplifies British class conflict of the era and Cribbins switches between a working class Cockney accent, in which he drops his aitches, and a middle class accent for the gentleman in the bowler hat.
Don't dig there, dig it elsewhere.
You're digging it round and it ought to be square.
The shape of it's wrong, it's much too long,
And you can't put a hole where a hole don't belong.
Noël Coward, who wrote many comic songs himself, chose the record as one of his Desert Island Discs . He said: "I think the only one I would never get sick of is "Hole in the Ground", because I could translate it into French as I walked up and down on the beach." [5]
Bernard Joseph Cribbins was an English actor and singer whose career spanning nearly eight decades.
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Myles Peter Carpenter Rudge was an English songwriter, known for writing the lyrics for novelty songs. His songs "The Hole in the Ground" and "Right Said Fred" were both British Top 10 chart hits in 1962, both recorded by Bernard Cribbins to music by Ted Dicks and produced by George Martin for Parlophone. Another of his songs, "A Windmill in Old Amsterdam", was a hit in 1965 for Ronnie Hilton, and won an Ivor Novello Award in 1966 for the Year's Outstanding Novelty Composition.
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Edward Dicks was an English composer. He is best known for composing the music for the novelty songs "Right Said Fred" and "The Hole in the Ground". They were both Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart in 1962, recorded by Bernard Cribbins with lyrics by Myles Rudge, and produced by George Martin for Parlophone. Another song by Dicks and Rudge, "A Windmill in Old Amsterdam", was a million-seller hit in 1965 for Ronnie Hilton.