Happy anniversary everybody! Yes, I started this very blog nine years ago this week, and to celebrate this auspicious occasion we have another disc that was suggested by a long-time WWR follower.Donated to our aural cabinet of curiosities by Steve Simms-Luddington, information on the utterly bizarre promo record I Want a Lovely, Lovely Sausage has been hard to come by, but I have managed to piece together a few facts about it and its creator, Alexander Silver.
Written to promote a prize-winning British butcher, rather than the more famous jam manufacturer, I Want a Lovely, Lovely Sausage and the equally peculiar flip side, Come to Robertson’s was issued some time in the early 70s on the custom Alexander Silver Promotional Records label, written by the same Alexander Silver and performed by Silver’s People – presumably Alex on vocals and the horrendously out of tune guitar, plus two unwilling and under-rehearsed friends on bass and drums.
Alex Silver was a jobbing songwriter who had previously written the England Football Song in 1965, issued as a single-sided single by the small Jackson Recording Company, a custom recording company who also put out the occasional 45 or LP and that was based in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. Issued primarily to help bolster England’s chances in the 1966 World Cup (well, it certainly worked!), the song was a hit with Sir Alf Ramsay, was played at the World Cup opening ceremony and at several matches during the competition, and could be heard on television and on radio prior to and during the tournament. Our Alex also wrote an alternative version of the official World Cup Willie theme, but this seems not to have been recorded.
Buoyed by the success of this, Mr. Silver set up his own company. As well as I Want a Lovely, Lovely Sausage his Alexander Silver label issued at least one more 45, the David Kaye Sound’s Loreleibacked with Sing An Alexander Silver Song… both songs, naturally, written by Alexander Silver.
There have been a number of British butchers trading under the name Robertson over the years, and there’s no clue on the label or in the lyrics as to which particular company the disc was cut for. The names of some of the staff are mentioned in the lyrics of the b-side… time for someone to do some detective work.
Enjoy!