CLINTON FORD – A WAND’RING MINSTREL I
An appreciation of Clinton Ford
by Spencer Leigh

This three-part feature with discography appeared in In Tune magazine (November/December 2005 and January 2006). I’m publishing it on the web as Clinton has not have enough acclaim and deserves to have his story told. Whether I’ve done him justice of course is another matter.

PART 1 – FANLIGHT FANNY

“Nearly everything I’ve done seemed like a good idea at the time.”
(Clinton Ford, 2005)

Ask anybody about Clinton Ford and the odds are that, if they know him at all, they will say ‘Fanlight Fanny’. There’s nothing wrong with that as ‘Fanlight Fanny’ is a much-loved comic record, but no one song can sum up Clinton Ford’s vast repertoire. Clinton can sing romantic ballads like ‘Somewhere My Love’, 60s pop like ‘Run To The Door’ and country songs like ‘This Song Is Just For You’, not to mention scores of jazz, pop, music hall and children’s favourites. In the singles catalogues published by ‘The Gramophone’, Clinton Ford is listed as a ‘beat vocalist’ but he was much more than that. Clinton Ford: “I can’t be put in a pigeonhole and when people ask me what sort of songs I sing, I say, ‘The ones with words and music.’

In another sense, though, ‘Fanlight Fanny’ is typical of Clint’s songbook. His preference is for little-known but well-written songs from a bygone age. In concert, he resembles a one-man edition of ‘The Good Old Days’ as you hear songs that nobody else has sung for years. He is a one-man custodian of the Tin Pan Alley archives who is entrusted with bringing these songs to life. He comments, “A lot of these old vaudeville songs are crystallised history. They are about things that happened and they were contemporary songs in their day. Look at the tandem bikes in ‘Daisy Bell’, which is over a hundred years old. I sang that at the City Varieties in Leeds and the whole audience sang along with it.”

Novelty songs date more than most but Clint can take comic songs and restore their vitality and humour. His trick, if there is one, is to revel in the words: he always enunciates them clearly and these days he doesn’t perform songs unless he loves them himself. Whenever he is asked for his favourite song, Clint says, “The one I’m singing.” Like ‘The Old Bazaar In Cairo’, you can find anything and everything in Clinton’s catalogue, and, to my ears at least, this jack of all trades is the master of all.

To me and to Clint’s fans, his versatility was his strength, but it also was a marketing man’s nightmare. Clint reflects, “Should I have gone all comedy or all sentimental? I don’t know. I mixed them up and it didn’t work. People didn’t know what I was going to turn up with next, but that’s me. I couldn’t stick to one type of music. There were too many good songs that I wanted to sing.”

Clinton Ford had the talent, temperament and personality to be a major star and yet, despite several opportunities and a few minor hits, it didn’t happen. What went wrong? The lack of a clear direction is part of the answer but as this three-part feature will show, Clinton Ford has sabotaged his own career. If a wrong turn could be taken, Clint took it, but this is what makes him so absorbing and why his greatest weaknesses are also his strengths.

As I was researching this feature, two names sprang to mind: Lonnie Donegan and George Melly. Like Clinton, they loved music hall and made their living from the songs of the past. They revelled in finding obscurities such as ‘Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour On The Bedpost Overnight?’ (Donegan) and ‘Nuts’ (Melly). Lonnie Donegan had a stylistic range that was as wide as Clinton Ford’s but, on the whole, he would shoehorn the songs into his own, very personalised style, while George Melly’s primary interest lay in licentious songs – in fact, the bawdier the better, and the songs are in keeping with his image. Given the opportunity, I suspect that Lonnie would have enjoyed going that way too.

Undoubtedly the entertainers had much in common – notably, a shared love for Max Miller – and they all knew hundreds of songs. Clinton, a modest man, told me, “I don’t sing any better than anyone else. I just know more songs than anyone else.” This is probably true. I have seen Clinton respond to audience suggestions and perform a song impromptu, often with the introductory verse. At a guess, Clinton might know 1,000 songs.

Clinton Ford or rather Ian George Stopford Harrison began life in Salford on 4 November 1931: “I was born in Salford but only because my grandfather couldn’t get work on the Liverpool docks. He was a superintendent stevedore and he walked to Salford with his family, pushing my father in a pram. He had no money and he found work when he got there.”

It was a musical family: “My mother was a pianist in the silent film days, and a very good one too. My father was a singer and all my uncles were singers or musicians, and that’s why I know so many songs. ‘I Love Me’, for example, comes from a song album that was in our piano stool when I was a lad. My father taught me ‘Miss Hooligan’s Christmas Cake’ or I should say, he taught me the first verse. I got the second verse from Mick Groves of the Spinners, which was only fair as I taught him ‘Dirty Old Town’.”

That response is typical of Clint’s conversation as he packs information into his answers, which often lead into other subjects. Given the information, I am sure I could write an equally enthralling article about Clinton’s family. “My cousin Fred in Bebington was such a big man that they couldn’t get a hat to fit him,” says Clinton. Don’t you want to know more about cousin Fred?

The young Ian Harrison had the makings of a performer from the start: “I was always the first on stage at school. I blacked up once and this shows you how early I was intending to do all this. I was one of the three kings in a nativity play and I decided to be the black one.” One of Clint’s first heroes was Paul Robeson and he wanted a huge, deep voice like that. While Clint and I were listening to a Paul Robeson record one day, he said, “You could soak a Yorkshire pudding in that voice.”

In the early 1950s Clinton served with the armed forces in Vienna. It was there he learnt ‘Horst Du Mein Heimliches Rufen’, which means ‘Do You Hear My Secret Calling?’ and was recorded by Herbert Ernst Groh in 1940. Clint adds, “‘Cathy I Love You’ is a pretty little song that I thought of when I was on guard duty.”

He arranged shows in the forces and would sing folk songs with his guitar. At one show an officer’s wife sang some country songs by Eddy Arnold and Hank Williams and he was soon tuning in to the Blue Danube Network, the Austrian equivalent of AFN, to hear what he could. He also met American servicement with the same interest.

Returning to the UK, Clinton wanted to work as a professional musician: “I was going on tour in a variety show in 1957 with a group I had formed called the Backwoods Skiffle Group, although it wasn’t really skiffle. I thought that my real name didn’t sound right and someone came up with Clinton Ford, which fitted in with the Backwoods Skiffle Group much better.” Still, he could, quite legitimately, have been George Harrison.

Skiffle was soon confined to a backwater but rock’n’roll, also a product of the mid-fifties, was here to stay. “I liked Josh White and I loved blues, folk and country music. A lot of the original rock’n’roll was blues-oriented and so it wasn’t offensive to me. I loved Fats Domino doing ‘I’m Walkin’’ and ‘When My Dreamboat Comes Home’. I worked with Little Richard on television and he was a wild man, a marvellous performer. I usually don’t mind whom I’m following on stage, but I don’t think I could have followed him with any success.” The show in question was ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ for 13 October 1962. The line-up was Little Richard, Dion, John Leyton, Marion Ryan, Terry Lightfoot’s Jazzmen and Clinton Ford.

Clinton Ford worked as a Redcoat at Butlin’s for three years and he fronted a skiffle group in a TV commercial for the holiday camps. Sometimes he would dress in a cowboy outfit and sing western songs, his long, lanky frame working in his favour. After working in Butlin’s Pwllheli in 1957, he came to Liverpool and went to a new club, the Cavern. “I had family in Bebington but I had never really been to Liverpool until I went to the Cavern. I sang ‘Ace In The Hole’ with Ralph Watmough’s band and then someone asked if I could sing with the Merseysippi Jazz Band. Their pianist Frank Robinson said, ‘Not another one’, and I’ve been singing with them on and off ever since. I like the sound they make and they are good to sing with. Most of them do a little vocal or two and although they have had permanent singers, I am their longest serving singer even though it is only spasmodic.”

Frank Robinson admits he had reservations: “I was apprehensive about Clinton because most people who want to sing with the band don’t have much idea of keys or intonation. As soon as he sang, I realised that there was no problem with Clinton: he had good intonation and good diction and you can understand every word he sings.”

Ken ‘Nobby’ Baldwin, the Mersey’s guitarist and banjo player, also remembers that audition: “We were playing at the Cavern in 1958 and this guy came through the door. It was Clinton Ford but we didn’t know him and his face was hidden by a pair of sunglasses. I thought he was a poser - you don’t wear sunglasses in a cellar - but there was a reason for this as he had two black eyes. He had just finished a summer season at Butlin’s in Pwllheli. He sang in the bar every night and he had become friendly with one of the girls who worked there. He had taken her to his chalet but she happened to be the chef’s young lady who sussed out where she was. The chef duffed him up and he still had the shiners when we saw him. He didn’t create a good impression at first but as soon as he sang with the band, things were different. We realised he could sing. He knew a few jazz numbers and he had a good voice. His first love was country music which he does very well and then in the nightclubs, he’d be doing ‘Fanlight Fanny’. We love playing with him and we know a lot of his numbers.”

Around the same time, Derek Vaux, a subsequent member of the Merseys, played Butlin’s in Filey as part of that Noel Walker Jazz Band: “We got into the same sort of trouble as Clinton. Clinton told me about the soothing effect that singing had on young ladies, especially holidaymakers, and he just had to visit them at three in the morning to console them. At least, that was the story he told the camp manager before he was evicted.”

Clinton Ford remembers his first songs with the Merseys well as it was the night the trams finished in Liverpool. He sang at the Cavern with them and sometimes slept there overnight. He was a dosser at the Pier Head before he found lodgings: “I had a little bedsit in Canning Street for fifteen shillings a week. It was a marvellous little place. Ron Rubin, who’s worked with everyone, had a bedsit opposite to me, but his was smaller than mine and only ten shillings a week. Somehow he got a piano up there. I played my guitar in my room and did write some songs there. I recorded one of them, ‘Now That You’ve Gone’. I liked playing the Cavern with the Merseys but it’s hard to convey how squalid it was. When it was packed, the moisture would rise and settle on the ceiling. It would condense and drip down your neck. It was an awful place but we loved it.”

Ken Baldwin: “Clinton Ford played with us in the winter and we learnt a lot of his songs. We were semi-pro and playing two or three times a week. We weren’t making enough for him to live on, so we knew that he would never stay with us.”

In 1957 a Butlin’s Redcoat, Russ Hamilton had a million-seller with his Oriole single, ‘We Will Make Love’ and maybe Clinton would do the same for the label in 1958. Clinton wanted to record a catchy song that was going up the American charts for Marty Robbins, ‘The Story Of My Life’, but Oriole wasn’t interested and the song was a UK No.l for EMI’s Michael Holliday.

Instead, Clinton fronted the Hallelujah Skiffle Group, which was not a bunch of friends but a group of session musicians. Ernie Shear, soon to play lead guitar on Cliff Richard’s ‘Move It!’, was on guitar and Clint was joined by members of the Mike Sammes Singers. Three singles were released, one under Clinton’s name and two as the Hallelujah Skiffle Group featuring Clinton Ford. They didn’t sell, one reason being that skiffle was on its way out.

Clinton made his first radio appearance on ‘Follow The Stars’ on 27 April 1958. The producer, David Doré, filed the note, “This engagement is only for a ‘Discovery’ spot in the programme – he still has to pass the BBC audition.”

A week later another producer notes, “I have heard Ford’s commercial record – as far as one can usefully label this sort of thing, he is a rockabilly merchant. Would Jimmy Grant please advise whether he would be more appropriately judged in the skiffle or vocalist channel? I can’t help feeling that few singers of this style would pass the vocalist test.” How intriguing that the BBC had two channels – one with lower standards for skifflers.

Because Clinton had a contract with the Oriole label and the Merseysippi Jazz Band were with Esquire, they could not record together. Or could they? In May 1958 they recorded a single for Esquire and Clinton sang with them on ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’. It was released under the name of Al St George. Clinton recalls, “It was not the best of names, and I wished they’d put Alexander St George on the label which was much better. One reviewer said that I would have more success chasing dragons. With a bit of luck, he’ll have thought it was George Melly rather than me.”

Considering his versatility, I would have thought that he would have been ideal for the cover versions on Oriole’s subsidiary, the Woolworth’s label Embassy, but Clint didn’t record for them. “I would have said the opposite to you,” says his Oriole labelmate Chas McDevitt, “His voice is so distinctive that it would be hard for him to use a pseudonym. He was a real live wire and the reason he knew so many songs was because he covered so many styles. Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor knew hundreds of songs and may have known more than Clint but they were confined to one genre.”

Clinton often worked with the Harry Leader Orchestra and in October 1958 Harry Leader, acting as his agent, wrote to the BBC and asked if he could be considered for ‘Mid-day Music Hall’. He wrote, “He is a first class performer who accompanies himself on guitar and needs no orchestra. He specialises in country and western songs. Clinton Ford has already recorded for Oriole and has been signed for another two years. In a fortnight’s time he will be recording some of his own titles. His age is 23.” Er no.

What Harry Leader didn’t know was Clinton had had a BBC audition for ‘Guitar Club’ and ‘Saturday Club’ the previous day. He had played ‘Lovesick Blues’, ‘Back Street Affair’, ‘Someday You’ll Call My Name’ and ‘Nellie Dean’, and John Kingdon reported, “A country and western singer of great value to us in this day and age. Result: Yes.” From then on, Clinton was to work regularly on the BBC and as we shall find next month, perhaps a little too regularly. His first TV appearance was with the Merseysippi Jazz Band on ‘The Ken Dodd Show’, which was from the Central Pier, Blackpool in 1960.

Also, Harry Leader’s letter puzzled the BBC: “Evidently Mr. Ford’s right hand doesn’t know what his left hand is doing as I have received by the same post, a letter authorising Forrester-George to act on his behalf.”

In January 1958 the Merseysippi Jazz Band played at the Royal Albert Hall - at four in the morning. John Lawrence: “It was one of those multi-band concerts where each band would try and upstage the others. You always started with the loudest and fastest tune you could manage. In complete contrast, the Graeme Bell Band started with a very slow Duke Ellington tune and brought the house down as nobody else had thought of doing that. We had been waiting to play since 10 pm because an all-night session was quite a novelty, and there was a huge crowd. We had Clint with us and there was a song at the top of the charts, ‘Ma, He’s Making Eyes At Me’ by the Johnny Otis Show, which had a Bill Haley flavour about it. Clint thought it was a good tune and that we should try it. It was an easy tune and we played it well but a song that was at the top of the hit parade was anathema to the serious jazz fans, even if it was an oldie. The stage at the Albert Hall is pretty high so, as with the Proms, the stage is chin high to the people who are standing. One die-hard shouted out, ‘You’re not fit to lick Ken Colyer’s boots.’ We thought this was hilarious so his whole outburst misfired completely. Why people should get so worked up over what they think is authentic music, I don’t know.”

In 1960 Clinton did record officially with the Merseysippi Jazz Band on a vo-de-o-do EP for Oriole. The EP is very good indeed and I particularly like ‘Wana’ which is a close companion to ‘Baby Face’. Cornet player John Lawrence: “We recorded ‘I Wish I Was In Peoria’ with Clinton, which is an American vaudeville song. We also recorded ‘Get Out And Get Under’, which was written when motor cars were beginning to emerge and they were breaking down all the time.” “I still do Get Out And Get Under,” adds Clint,”That’s a beauty. We were doing ‘Peoria’ wrong for 26 years as the Merseys were changing key for the chorus and they shouldn’t change key at all.”

When people criticise country music, they often say it is because the songs are about dead dogs. What they are referring to is ‘Old Shep’ and maybe Clinton set the cause of country music back in the UK, rather than advancing it. Clinton Ford: “Nearly everything I’ve done seemed like a good idea at the time. Even ‘Old Shep’. Red Foley had written it and Hank Snow had recorded a definitive version. Elvis Presley made a lousy version and I’m sure the Jordanaires are out of tune. I had done it on stage and seen the reaction and I said to the Levys who owned Oriole that I wanted to do it but they didn’t like it. I talked them into letting me record it but they wouldn’t release it. They said it was too slow, too dreary and too long. Reg Warburton was a beautiful pianist, who backed David Whitfield, and he got Gordon Franks to do the arrangements for the orchestra and he put two altos on it. I said we needed a steel guitar and a little choir, but no, they did it with a rock’n’roll group and two saxes. Terrible version, terrible.” To me, Clint’s vocal isn’t too good either: he is taking the lyric too deliberately, almost like a choirboy.

But Clint was determined that ‘Old Shep’ should be released: “I said, ‘If you don’t release ‘Old Shep’, I’m going, I know it’s going to be a hit.’ I went in to terminate the contract and Reg Warburton said, ‘Before you go any further, ‘Old Shep’ is being released next week.’ I said, ‘Okay I’m staying’, and it was a hit until Elvis Presley’s version was issued on an EP and that killed it.”

The other side of the single was even more improbable, a rock’n’roll version of ‘Nellie Dean’: “Oh, that was just a joke. When I was at Butlin’s some drunk asked me for a rocking ‘Nellie Dean’ and I just went into it with a guitar. It went down all right so we put it on the B-side. In fact, that was the A-side at first because Oriole didn’t believe in ‘Old Shep’, but I did and I was right.” Ray Charles breathed life into ‘My Bonnie’ and Bobby Darin into ‘Clementine’, but Clinton falls flat on his face with ‘Nellie Dean Rock’.

Being a good-natured bloke, Clinton said he would give his royalties from ‘Old Shep’ to the Battersea Dogs Home. It made the charts and poor Clint missed out. And this was one song which didn’t have royal patronage – Clint heard that the Queen told a member of her household to turn off ‘Housewives Choice’ because the presenter was playing ‘Old Shep’ as she had lost one of her corgis.

With ‘Old Shep’, Clinton became the first British artist to have a hit with a country record. It was not a one-off as Clinton was determined to make more country records. He says, “Oriole didn’t really have a clue how to make records or how to sell them, but they were nice people. I liked them. I wanted to go into country music and I tried to explain to them what country music was and they didn’t understand. They remembered Big Bill Campbell before the war and it sounded terribly corny to me. It wasn’t real country music and they spoke about rocky mountains and everyone walking around with spurs and check shirts and dancing round bales of hay. It wasn’t much to do with real country music: they were laughing at country music. By now I had discovered Hank Williams and all the great country artists, and Oriole wouldn’t let me record the songs. I had to sing rock’n’roll and go with the trend.”

However, the follow-up to ‘Old Shep’ did come from Hank Williams’ repertoire, ‘Lovesick Blues’, although Clint wasn’t happy: “‘Lovesick Blues’ was a labour of love and I shouldn’t have done it. I should have left it to Hank Williams. Frank Ifield deserved a No.l with it as that was a good record.”

Clint’s foray into the seasonal market was with ‘Red Indian Christmas Carol’: “That is a very good, poetic song. It was written by a Christian missionary who wanted to get the Christmas story over to the Hurons, a tribe of Red Indians. They are still Indians to me: whoever heard of playing Cowboys and Native Americans? I was fascinated by the Indian imagery in the lyrics.”

Starting in December 1958, Clinton appeared on the BBC programmes, ‘Guitar Club’, ‘Saturday Club’, ‘The Free And Easies’ (with Ted Ray) with a special ‘Saturday Club’ from the Royal Albert Hall on 30 January 1960. He received a five guinea fee for that, £3.9.0d for his train fare and £2.10.0d subsistence for one night. At this concert he picked up a tulip from the front of the stage and ate it. He told the audience that it was quite nice, rather like mustard and cress. This turned out to be another memorable gig as he was barracked while singing ‘Old Shep’. “I’ll finish this song if it kills me,” gasped Clinton. Some wag shouted, “It’s already killing us.”

‘Oh, By Jingo!’ was a cheerful song from the 1919 Broadway musical, ‘Linger Longer, Letty’ that had been performed by Danny Kaye, Spike Jones and Billy Cotton. When Clint sang this on ‘Easy Beat’ in January 1961, Brian Matthew decreed that he should sing an oldie a week. He was to do much more than that.

Clint had his second chart entry with ‘Too Many Beautiful Girls’. He recalls, “Reg Warburton found ‘Too Many Beautiful Girls’ for me. I said, ‘Let’s not mess around with funny little rock groups. Let’s get in a proper trad band and do it traddy. He said, ‘All right’ and we got Charlie Galbraith and the boys. The record had nothing to do with trad: it just had a trad lineup. Trad was a nice happy sound and it was different from constant rock’n’roll. It was a good thing, good for me anyway.”

In 1935 George Formby had had a big hit with ‘Fanlight Fanny’ and he had featured it in the northern comedy, ‘Trouble Brewing’ (1939). The song was about a striptease artist who had past her prime:

“She’s a peach but understand,
She’s called a peach because she’s always canned,
Fanlight Fanny, the frowsy nightclub queen.”

Enter Clinton Ford in 1962: “I loved George Formby’s songs such as ‘The Lancashire Toreador’ and ‘Why Don’t Women Like Me’. George sang ‘Fanlight Fanny’ in the 1939 film, ‘Trouble Brewing’. The publishers were so pleased when I recorded it that they gave me a quarter of the publishing, so every time it is on television, I get a few quid.” The song was written by Harry Gifford and Fred E. Cliffe but the credit on Clinton’s Oriole single reads Gissord, Cliffe, Formby and Ford. Clinton does make a few changes to the lyric: George sings ‘beer and stout’ and Clinton sings ‘gin and scotch’.

I asked Clint if he had ever met Formby: “No, but my wife Margaret was a dancer in one of his shows. His wife, Beryl, was a dragon and he used to give Margaret ten shillings to buy the girls some sweets, but he’d say, ‘Don’t tell Beryl.’”

This time Clinton was paired with a session band formed by George Chisholm. Although an excellent trombonist, Chisholm was known for tomfoolery via his appearances on ‘The Black And White Minstrel Show’. Geoorge Chisholm’s so called All Stars perfectly complemented Clinton’s comical vocal. ‘Fanlight Fanny’ almost made the Top 20 and was Clint’s most successful single. The B-side was Clinton’s own song, a country ballad called ‘Dreamy City Lullaby’: it’s an effective song in a well worn tradition.

The follow-up to ‘Fanlight Fanny’, again with George Chisholm’s All Stars, was more confusing than commercial. Clinton sang ‘What More Can I Say?’, a song associated with Flanagan and Allen, in a gentle romantic way and halfway through, the tempo was increased and it ended up with a full-blown jazzy ending. The B-side was the bluesy and reflective ‘Ever Since The Day You Left Town’, which is very well done with George Chisholm’s All Stars and is Clinton’s own song, to boot. It is one of Clint’s best songs: he was never quite distinctive enough as a songwriter and rather disappointingly, the current Denmark Street writers were rarely used. In particular, Lionel Bart could have come up with some memorable songs for Clinton.

The success of ‘Fanlight Fanny’ led to an album with George Chisholm, which featured old-time songs, none of which would be known to contemporary music fans. There were the lazy rhythms of ‘Sleepy Time Gal’, the romance of ‘What More Can I Say?’, but most of all, there were the comic songs. Clinton told of his love for a big woman in a Lu Watters speciality, ‘Huggin’ And A-Chalkin’’. Judging by the response this receives in concert, it should have been a single.

The singles, though, were all over the place – a minstrel song from 1902, ‘Under The Bamboo Tree’, which had been featured in the Judy Garland film, ‘Meet Me In St. Louis’, the catchy but dated ‘Opening Night In Loveland’ and the very lively ‘Popsy Wopsy’ as if performed in a circus: “I liked ‘Popsy Wopsy’,” says Clint, “I’d heard it by Noel Coward.”

Clinton was turning his back on contemporary trends, but he did revive Russ Hamilton’s ballad, ‘Rainbow’, which incorporates a very primitive and irritating echo. “It was a very pretty song,” says Clint, “and I really wanted to do it.” The B-side was the music hall song, ‘On Mother Kelly’s Doorstep’, later a hit for Danny LaRue.

Clinton was persuaded to record the sequel, ‘Fanlight Fanny’s Daughter’, and he admits, “‘Fanlight Fanny’s Daughter’ was a dreadful mistake. It was especially written as a follow-up and it was rubbish. I didn’t like it at all and I shouldn’t have done it.” The tune is similar to ‘Fanlight Fanny’ and there are some funny lines:

“When she dances, you can bet
She’ll show off her piroutette,
Fanlight Fanny’s daughter shows them how.”

Eventually, in 1962, Clint talked Oriole into making a country album, ‘Country Songs – Ancient And Modern’. The cover with Clinton holding a rifle alongside some bales of hay is surely what he was complaining about, but never mind. Clint was serious about presenting country music in the UK and although I would have preferred Nashville backing, the accompaniments by Frank Barber (orchestral) and Jack Fallon (small group with banjo and violin) are okay. He also overdoes the American accent, sounding like a male Dolly Parton on ‘The Richest Poor Boy’. Still, it does mean that it would pass for a US album at times.

The most intriguing track is ‘My Little Lady’ with some superb yodelling which Clint never repeated. “I did my first yodel in the break on a single of ‘I Cried A Tear’ and then I did this, which was the full Swiss job. We had Denny Wright on guitar who played with Lonnie Donegan. It wasn’t a bad record but I never did it on stage. Maybe I should have done as Frank Ifield was yodelling with great success a few years later. I did a bit of yodelling years later with ‘Ghost Riders in The Sky’ but that’s about it. I don’t think I could do it now.”

With a couple of exceptions (‘Keep On The Sunny Side’ and ‘Lonesome Whistle’), Clinton veered away from familiar material and they are mostly his selections. He was very fond of Bill Clifton’s ‘You Go To Your Church’, which, ironically, has even more meaning today.

“You go to your church and I’ll go to mine
But let’s walk along together.
Our heavenly father is the same,
So let’s walk along together.”

‘Charlie’s Shoes’, which was a close cousin to ‘Heartaches By The Number’, should have been tried as a single, but Clint was never concerned with big hits. As he said in 1967, “I’ve always been happiest as the kind of entertainer who closes the first half of a bill. I’ve always dreaded the idea of being a really big star. Once you’re at the top there’s only one way you can go. Down. So I’d rather not.”

That completes our look at Clint’s records for the small independent label, Oriole, and next month we’ll turn to his work for Columbia and Pye. We’ll also be looking at his brief time as one of Kenny Ball’s Jazzmen as well as delving into the BBC files.

PART 2- FINGER IN THE PYE

“They made me a present of Mornington Crescent,
They threw it a brick at a time.”
(‘The Night I Appeared As Macbeth’, Clinton Ford, 1968)

Despite a few minor hits for the Oriole label, Clinton Ford’s career in the early 60s was lacking direction. In retrospect, he should have formed his own band and carved his own career but he preferred to take work as and when it arose. In retrospect, maybe the Merseysippi Jazz Band should have gone professional but they always regarded their day jobs as more important. Clinton Ford: “I was at the Mardi Gras in Liverpool with the Merseys and Kenny Ball had seen me. I got a phone call asking me to join his band. I thought twice about it as I didn’t want to leave Liverpool at the time, but Jimmy Ireland, the owner of the Mardi Gras, talked me into it when I was drinking in the Press Club. He said, ‘You’ll never really make anything here but down there you’ll have an international audience.’”

So as Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen were enjoying their first successes, they had Clinton Ford with them on the road: “When I was with Kenny Ball, it was seven nights a week in different places and quite often I would sleep in the bandwagon. I’d wake up and think, ‘I’ll go and see Bob Barclay today’ thinking I was in Leeds, but I was in Birmingham. Sometimes you didn’t know where you were.”

Clinton made several appearances on the Light Programme’s ‘Easy Beat’ with Kenny Ball’s Jazzmen and his talent was soon appreciated: “We recorded ‘Easy Beat’ on a Wednesday and it would go out on Sunday morning. Learning new songs for ‘Easy Beat’ didn’t bother me at all. I am happy to learn a new song a day. I would still do it now if the occasion arose.” Various BBC recordings of Clinton with Kenny Ball’s Jazzmen still exist – there is ‘Get Out And Get Under’ and ‘Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula’ from ‘Easy Beat’ and ‘Fanlight Fanny’ and ‘Michael Finnegan’ from ‘Saturday Club’.

One of the problems was that Kenny Ball wanted to sing as much as Clinton, and after three months, things came to a head. “Kenny wanted me to play banjo as well, which I could do, but I didn’t want to take the banjo player’s job, who was a lovely chap. Kenny couldn’t afford to keep me after a while and so I went on my own. We were doing ‘Easy Beat’ on Sunday mornings and when I told Brian Matthew that I had been given the push and wouldn’t be on ‘Easy Beat’ anymore, he said, ‘Oh yes you will, because we will give you your own contract.’” Clinton’s contract provided him with 12 guineas an appearance: he was also booked as the singer and compére on ‘Get With It’ for 25 guineas. Good money for those days, and for doing something he enjoyed.

Clinton recalls a return visit to Liverpool: “I remember playing the Cavern with Acker Bilk in 1962 and the owner Ray McFall said that there was no great call for jazz anymore. ‘It’s all Beatles now,’ he said, and I said, ‘Who are the Beatles?’”

In April 1963, Clinton found out: “I had to follow the Beatles once. It was on ‘Easy Beat’ and I was singing with the Kenny Ball band. I used to finish the show every week in those days and we did it from the Playhouse Theatre on the Embankment in London. The place went wild for the Beatles, but they still listened to us.”

Despite the advent of the Beatles and the beat groups, Clinton received plenty of work. He made TV appearances on ‘Stars And Garters’, ‘The Good Old Days’ and ‘The Billy Cotton Band Show’, and he had his own series, ‘Clinton’s Cakewalk’, on the Light Programme. When Derek Taylor interviewed him for ‘Melody Maker’ in 1963, he kept repeating that he was tired. “Well, I was,” says Clint, “After I left Kenny Ball, I went on my own and did the driving and it knocked me out. I did a matinee in Margate and an evening show in Peterborough. Then I drove overnight to Aberystwyth and returned for rehearsals for ‘Stars And Garters’. I was dozing in lay-bys and waking up freezing.”

That helps to explain Clint’s song, ‘Take Care On The Road’: “I wrote ‘Take Care On The Road’ when I was in digs with the Liverpool comedian, Ray Fell. We both had the same model of car and he said to me one day, ‘Take care on the road, cheerio.’ It was a good title for a song but I don’t know why I made it so dreadful and miserable.”

Don Lydiatt, the clarinet player with the Merseysippis, recalls, “We’d been playing in Sheffield. Coming back, we were full of ale and it was misty. We stopped on top of the Snake Pass for a pee and there was a grass verge, grass moorland and a low wall which we climbed over and stood on the other side to relieve ourselves, but Clinton took an extra step forwards and we heard this howl. We couldn’t see a thing so we got some newspapers and lit them and dropped them down and we could see Clinton on a ledge. He had fallen 20 feet, but it was sloping so he had rolled down. Below him, it was a 100 foot drop into the canyon at the bottom. He started crawling up and we were leaning over to get him. He calls it the night the Merseys saved his life.”

Clinton Ford: “I remember that well. Nobby Baldwin was having a pee and he said to me, ‘I wouldn’t like to get lost out here’ and suddenly I was gone.”

Things certainly could go with a swing with Clinton. Frank Robinson: “We were playing at the students’ union one night and Clinton noticed a piece of rope that was dangling down backstage. He tied it into a hangman’s noose, stood on a chair and put it round his neck. The chair was just a frame and he was stood on the edge. I was telling him not to take any chances when he fell off and I had to catch him quickly.”

Meanwhile, back at the BBC. On 17 April 1963 a BBC manager Henry Straker was reported as being “considerably steamed up over the amount of clashing broadcasts which Clinton Ford is doing”. In that week, he was on ‘Easy Beat’ (Sunday), ‘Clinton’s Cakewalk’ (Wednesday), ‘20s To The Twist’ (Thursday) and back with ‘Easy Beat’ (Sunday). A round robin of BBC producers also reveals that Clint was working for ‘Showtime’, ‘Worker’s Playtime’, ‘The Beat Show’, ‘Sing It Again’ and ‘Pops for Everyone’. Patrick Newman, the Light Entertainment Booking Manager, responded to the criticism by admitting that “practically every producer in the Corporation is clamouring to book him.” No need for the word “practically”, it would seem.

Clint joined Columbia in 1963 and the records could be made with a much bigger budget than at Oriole. He kicked off with a fine revival of ‘A Beggar In Love’ but again the choice of singles was haphazard. The unluckiest moment came with ‘The Wedding’; “I had been given this new song, ‘The Wedding’, which Alyn Ainsworth arranged for me on the Light Programme. I loved the song and I asked for a copy of my broadcast to be sent to Norman Newell so he could record it with me. Trouble is, Julie Rogers got a copy too.” Julie’s version entered the charts in August 1964 and climbed to No.3. Clinton’s version came out at the same time and went nowhere.

For the first Columbia album, ‘The Melody Man’, Clinton was dressed in top hat, cane and tails for the cover. It was a collection of vintage songs and he told ‘Melody Maker, “I have a great affection for those old songs. In their own way they are little works of art – they have so much character, like old coins and furniture, and character seems to be lacking in most modern songs.” So much for Lennon and McCartney then.

One of the modern songs recorded for Columbia, although you mightn’t think so, was ‘The Old Bazaar In Cairo’, written with the comedian Charlie Chester, and released as a single: “It was Charlie’s song but it needed a better tune and a middle eight, which is what I did. He also wrote ‘The Pockets Of One Little Boy’. It’s a very pretty song about all the things you find in the pockets of a little boy. That should have been an A-side.”

There is a second album, ‘Listen To Us’ on which Clint poses with his Great Danes. Clint took the Great Danes to a show at Wellington Pier in Great Yarmouth with David Frost. Frost was visited by his girlfriend Janette Scott with her white poodles, and there was a tremendous ruckus with their various pets. ‘Listen To Us’ is a fine album with a full-throated version of ‘Prisoner Of Love’, the Kingston Trio’s ‘San Miguel’ sung in a Mexican accent, and a delightful ‘Oh, Johnny! Oh, Johnny! Oh!’.

Clinton Ford was a very popular attraction when he was on a summer season with Tommy Trinder: “Tommy Trinder said to me, ‘It’s a good house tonight, Clint. You’re a draw.’ ‘No, Tommy,’ I said, ‘you’re the draw.’ ‘That’s it,’ said Tommy, ‘We’re a pair of drawers.”

Also on the bill was the veteran Canadian entertainer, Hershel Henlere, and this anecdote from Clint is a gem: “You could never get the comedy pianist Herschel Henlere off stage. They would have to draw the curtains on him. Hersch was magic and yet he never looked like a matinee idol. He was a little squat chap with thinning hair. He was 86 when I worked with him and every night he would find out where the nucleus of the audience was from and he would say, ‘And the greatest entertainer I ever worked with was so-and-so’, and it would be somebody from that town and he would get a cheer. If he was in Preston, he would say, ‘The greatest entertainer I ever worked with was Leslie Stuart.’ He was coming past my dressing-room one night and I said, ‘Hersch, who was the greatest entertainer you ever worked with?’ and he said, without hesitation, ‘Jolson.’ I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Sincerity. He would sing and the tears would roll down his face, and you could look at the audience and the tears would be rolling down their faces.’ He would say things to you like, ‘As I was saying to Scott Joplin one night…’ He’d played in a club on the opposite corner to Scott Joplin, but I never found out what he said to Scott Joplin.”

Every Christmas Clinton worked in pantomime. He recalls being in Bolton playing Widow Twanky in ‘Aladdin’: “I was doing it as a cross between Frank Randle and Old Mother Riley. The trick was to get me out of drag and into a suit as Clinton Ford. Abanazer said he would magic me out. He said, ‘I sentence you a fate worse than death – you will be Clinton Ford.’ I put on my grey suit and bow tie under my costume, and the costume had press studs at the back. There was a blackout, I undid the studs and went to the microphone singing ‘Oh! By Jingo’.”

Another time Clint was in panto with Jimmy Edwards in Southsea: “We were on orange boxes waiting to climb on the glittering staircase when Jimmy said to me, ‘Clint, I’m pissed.’ I said, ‘Jim, that’s nothing unusual.’ He said, ‘Yes, but this time I know I am. I usually leave myself in a little doubt.”

In 1966 Clinton was reunited with his Oriole producer, John Schroeder, at Pye’s new subsidiary, Piccadilly. Over the next five years, he made all manner of singles and albums. He started with Ray Davies’ ‘Dandy’ and then a country song ‘Run To The Door’. Clinton recalls, “John Schroeder said, ‘Let’s release ‘Dandy’ first and if it’s not in the charts in two weeks, we’ll release ‘Run To The Door’. It wasn’t, so John released ‘Run To The Door’ just as ‘Dandy’ was going in the charts and they spoilt each other’s sales. I really enjoyed doing ‘Run To The Door’ though: it was a beaty, meaty song and I loved that.”

Clinton also had hopes for the third Piccadilly single, ‘This Song Is Just For You’; “That could have been a hit if I’d sung it properly, but I was very tired when I did that session and you can tell I was straining. There are some sharp notes in there.” Years later, when I came to compile the Pye/Piccadilly anthology, ‘Run To The Door’, with Clint, he was adamant that it shouldn’t be on the CD.

“Lots of people sing sharp: nobody notices.”
“I will.”
“You won’t. You told me that you never play your records.”
“I don’t, but I might want to check on a lyric.”
“Knowing you, you’ll feel bad if you hear any of the tracks.”
“You’re probably right. I never play them because I’m too self-critical. I only hear the mistakes. I always know I could have done it better.”

Clint’s first Piccadilly album was ‘Dandy’ after the single. It was Clinton’s usual mixture – George Formby novelties, country songs, standards and another version of ‘The Old Bazaar In Cairo’. A good album, but hardly what the fans of ‘Dandy’ wanted. There are also several standards. “Most people use mandolin on ‘Somewhere My Love’ but I insisted that we had a balalaika, which was nice. I did ‘Some Sunday Morning’ from an Errol Flynn film, ‘Virginia City’ with the Mike Sammes Singers. I know another version of ‘We Three’: (sings) ‘We three, we’re all alone, working for the BBC.” Clint sings me the parody - there is never a dull moment with this man.

The album included his song, ‘Best Job Yet – Made You Mine’. “Not quite mine,” says Clint, “Somebody sent me a lyric and I wrote a tune to it. Roger Whittaker used to do that all the time on TV and it was a very good idea. He got lots of material out of it.”

The second Piccadilly album was a country one, ‘Big Willie Broke Jail Tonight’ made with Alan Tew’s arrangements and the Ladybirds. This was a more commercial selection than usual with contemporary hits like ‘Wolverton Mountain’, ‘Rhythm Of The Rain’ and ‘El Paso’. Clinton says, “‘Big Willie Broke Jail Tonight’ is in 5/4 which is unusual for a country tune, and the orchestra was having bets that I couldn’t get it right. Big Jim Sullivan plays some lovely guitar on ‘El Paso’.”

In 1968 Clinton Ford had his greatest moment - an hilarious album with George Chisholm and the Inmates called ‘Clinton The Clown’: “That was great fun to record. The Inmates were George’s old friends, bits and pieces from the Squadronaires including Freddie Clayton and Tommy McQuater on trumpets, Alfie Reece on tuba, Ernie Shear on banjo and guitar and Jock Cummings on drums. We did it in an all night session and I fell asleep against the wall at four o’clock in the morning waiting for the taxi to go home. Johnny Stevens wrote ‘My Baby’s Wild About My Old Trombone’ for George and myself. It’s very hard on the lip for a trombonist to clown around like that. The Jack Hylton Band did ‘Rhymes’ - there are some very vulgar limericks you could put in that song. ‘Burlington Bertie’ comes from one of the first male impersonators, Ella Shields. We did the LP cover in Mayfair and the make-up took five or six hours to do. I can see I didn’t shave very well that day.”

The album includes what is surely Clinton’s greatest performance. In ‘The Night I Appeared As Macbeth’, he plays a pompous actor who doesn’t even know that Shakespeare has died.

“Shakespeare dead? Poor old Bill,
Why, I never knew the poor fellow was ill.”

The song is totally hilarious and brilliantly delivered, despite a slight slip, by Clinton. The album also includes a remake of ‘Fanlight Fanny’ but with a new title: “We thought ‘Fandance Fanny’ sounded better.”

I was intrigued to see both Clinton Ford and a mutual friend Phil Taylor listed as the writers of ‘The Old Fashioned Bustle My Grandmother Wore’, but it’s not strictly correct. Phil Taylor, who died recently, told me: “My parents were in ENSA during the war and before that my father ran a concert party in Liverpool. They had a comedian, Billy Rowlands, in ENSA who sang ‘The Old Fashioned Bustle My Grandmother Wore’ to the tune of ‘The Mountains Of Mourne’ and he had written the words himself. He had never copyrighted them and he had no family when he died in 1945 at the age of 90. I wrote the words down for Clint and he wrote a new tune for it and recorded it with George Chisholm. I happened to be working in London that week and Clint invited me to the session and I watched it being sung at two o’clock in the morning.”

While talking to Clint, I discovered that he is Ali Bendhown on the parody single, ‘Ya Mustafa’ and he also played tambourine on the instrumental flipside, ‘Turkish Delight’: “I fancied doing something in Arabic and I got an Egyptian friend to translate a verse for me. I don’t think it sold very many copies but it was played on ‘Two-Way Family Favourites’, and Jean Metcalf had no idea it was me. ‘What a funny name,’ she said. I also did ‘Cielito Lindo’ in Spanish. It got released in Mexico so I wonder what they thought of it.”

The next album was more conventional, Give A Little – Take A Little. “I loved Frankie Laine’s ‘Moonlight Gambler’, and ‘My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time’ is a really cute song. ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ is a very pretty song and I like it very much. It’s one of my favourite songs and I am not doing it in a sexual way like Otis Redding.” Clinton chuckles, “It’s pure romance with me.” It’s rare for Clint to perform new Tin Pan Alley material but here he sings John Schroeder and Tony Macaulay’s ‘The Last One To Say Goodnight’, an excellent song in the same vein as Long John Baldry’s ‘Let The Heartaches Begin’.

By now, Clinton Ford found himself doing huge summer seasons. In the early 70s he was in Skegness, Blackpool, Morecambe and the Isle of Man for five or six months at a time. So you think show business is glamorous?

Clint still did occasional broadcasts, getting 20 guineas for ‘The Good Old Days’ or ‘The Golden Parrot Club’. In 1970 he made a 13-week series ‘At The Straw Hat’ in Manchester and received 32 guineas for each programme. The following year he was hired as the compère and vocalist with the Sid Phillips band for a series. He was offered £30, but he wanted £35. They agreed on £32 and the file records that “Mr. Ford is not happy but won’t let us down.” What Clinton won’t know until now is that he could have pushed harder. The file reveals, “If Clinton Ford wished to insist on £35, we would pay it but we would mark his card to say that he could not be offered any further compère and singing duties.”

The author Brian Jacques recalls seeing Clinton Ford in the Seventies: “I went with a friend to the Players’ Theatre in King’s Cross, which is also known as the Pink Tunnel. It was a Victorian theatre and they used authentic scripts for the pantomimes. I went to a music hall show with Clinton and there was an American heckling him. Clinton said, ‘I can hear that we have one of colonial friends in tonight. Will you please stand up, sir, so that we can laugh at your tailor?’ He kept it up too – he gave this fella a real hard time.”

Another time Clint was at ATV with Kenny Lynch and Jimmy Tarbuck: “Jimmy had a number plate, COM 1C, which was a bit ostentatious. Kenny and I thought we’d have a joke with him and we put a question mark on the end. He wasn’t very happy about it but he blamed Des O’Connor.”

Times were changing and Clinton found himself making budget releases, albeit with no drop in quality. Following Wally Whyton’s success with children’s material, there was ‘Songs For Children Aged From One To A Hundred’ for Pye’s subsidiary, Marble Arch. Clinton performs many vintage songs such as the boy scout chant, ‘Michael Finnegan’, the century old standard ‘Daisy Bell’ with its little-heard verse, and ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic’. “That to me is the classic children’s song,” says Clint, “It was given a great arrangement by Alan Braden with a lovely sousaphone solo on it. Making that album was sheer joy. ‘The Oyster Song’ was written by my solicitor, Edmund Winshenk, who used the name Robert Romaine. I wrote some songs with him including ‘Opening Night In Loveland’ and he also wrote ‘When The Melody Man Says Goodnight’ for me.”

And then there’s the second Marble Arch album, ‘Country Antiques’: “‘Tennesee Waltz’ is the song that got me into country music in 1950. I loved Hank Thompson and I did his songs. ‘Give A Little, Take A Little’ and ‘Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way’. I changed the middle eight on ‘Lorena’ which is an American civil war song as it was bit doomy. I called my second daughter Susannah Lorena after it.”

In the early 60s Clint met his wife, Margaret (Maggie) Worsford, in the show, ‘Thanks For The Memory’, at the Central Pier, Blackpool, where she was a Tiller Girl. They married in 1962 and following Clint’s success in the Isle of Man, they bought a guest house in Douglas in 1980 and lived there with their children, Georgina, Susannah, Becky and Ian: “We started off with 35 bookings for the TTs races, but unfortunately people stopped coming to the island.” Clint had bought the boarding house at the wrong time and the entertaining opportunities on the island had also dropped off.

After Pye, the recordings were one-offs and hard to come by as they were mostly made to promote summer seasons. They will be listed in the first-ever Clinton Ford discography next month. Clinton made country cassettes to be sold at gigs with titles like ‘Singing The Blues’ and ‘Waltz Across Texas’. “I wrote ‘Mi Amigo’ while I was driving to a show in Yarmouth. I dashed into the theatre and wrote the words down and thought I would remember the tune. I didn’t and I had to wait until it came back to me. When we did a soundcheck for ‘Waltz Across Texas’, we were having fun. The steel guitarist picked up the six-string guitar, which he couldn’t play, and did the solo. They were recording it too and it was so funny that we put it on the cassette as well. That was a mistake as it confused the people who heard it.”

The best album is the fond tribute to Al Jolson with the Alan Elsdon band which has now been reissued on CD with bonus tracks as ‘Clinton Ford Sings, Alan Elsdon Swings’. “I never got paid for making that album,” says Clint and that seems to be the story of his life. “I would have loved to have made more records. I would like to have sung that Don Williams song, ‘I Believe In You’.”

Although it was recorded, a 1989 reunion concert with Kenny Ball’s Jazzmen at Golders Green Hippodrome has not been released. Clinton performed ‘The Old Bazaar In Cairo’, ‘My Melancholy Baby’ (with verse) and ‘Fanlight Fanny’.

There has been a guest appearance on an album by the Grenadier Guards, produced by Brian Matthew, and a single about Lillie Langtry, ‘Jersey Lily’, but Clinton’s recording career has been scandalously overlooked in the past 30 years. Undoubtedly though, next month’s discography will hold some surprises.

PART 3 – MERSEYSIPPI MUD

“We shall hear among manyfold the Clinton Ford fine focus in the thrucus. What a trocal joy!”
(Professor Stanley Unwin, 2002)

Having been a fan of Clinton’s for so many years, it is now an honour to count him as a friend. Clint has been living in the Isle of Man for 25 years but he often comes to Liverpool, usually for bookings with the Merseysippi Jazz Band. I have seen him perform with them at their various residencies including a brilliant performance at the Philharmonic Hall in January 2003 on a tribute night for the Cavern DJ Bob Wooler.

Clinton has also been involved with several local radio programmes. One was a goodtime jam session which reunited him with the hillbilly Scouser, Hank Walters. “You’re still as rough as a bear’s behind,” said Clint affectionately. Everytime I have met Clint, he has come out with some gems – either great one-liners or wonderful reminiscences. Clint is the ideal pub companion unless there is piped music. He is an ardent member of Pipedown, the society which campaigns against it.

Clinton Ford excels at the annual jazz festival at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Liverpool with the Merseysippi Jazz Band. He dresses smartly and with his white hair and beard, he resembles Colonel Sanders so much that I’m tempted to give him my order for chicken-in-a-basket. He told the audience of senior citizens, “My hair has been this colour for 30 years and I used to stand out in a crowd. Now I get lost. Looking around the room today, it’s like being in the Alps.”

Clint is always fun. When he went to the reception desk at the hotel, he said, “I have a reservation.” “And what’s your name?” asked the receptionist. “Geronimo,” said Clint. Another time he said to a soldier. “Is that your friend over there?” “There’s no one over there,” said the soldier. “My,” said Clint, “Those camouflage suits are good, aren’t they?”

He works so well with the Merseysippis and their performances are always entertaining. Cornet player John Lawrence: “A lot of the music we do is just fun - we don’t take ourselves or our music too seriously. ‘My Baby’s Wild About My Old Trombone’ involves some very comic trombone playing and Pete Fryer can’t wait to make a fool of himself when we do it. The audience wants an enjoyable evening and it is a very different world from the way it started. The audience today does not consist of jazz experts and sometimes one of us will do a solo that is not all that interesting and still get a round of applause.”

Generally, the Merseys do a couple of tunes and then Clinton appears for a couple of songs, and it alternates like that throughout the evening. During an instrumental break, Clint will walk away from the microphone and sip his drink. You think he’s not going to make it back in time, but he hits the mark to the second. It is all very informal and I love the way that they chat between numbers to determine what to do next. The last time I saw Clint and the Merseys was at the Liverpool Jazz Festival in 2005. After giving a faultless performance, I asked Ken Baldwin if they had rehearsed. “No,” he said. “And when did you last rehearse?” He thought for a moment. “I think it was 1960.”

In an evening you might hear Clinton perform ‘My Baby’s Wild About My Old Trombone’, ‘Fanlight Fanny’ (now’ Fandance Fanny’), ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’, ‘Huggin’ And A-Chalkin’’, ‘Oh! By Jingo’, ‘Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland’, ‘Baby Face’, ‘Chesapeake Bay’, ‘My Cutey’s Due At 2.22’, ‘Way Down Yonder In New Orleans’ and ‘Doodle-Dee-Do’. He might even do a Victorian narration and he remains the complete entertainer: “No-one is more amazed than me that I can still do this in my seventies,” he told me.

One night he responded to a request for ‘Give Me A Kiss To Build A Dream On’ and afterwards said, “I was taking a chance there. I didn’t know if I knew all the words.” Fortunately he did. Not that Clint will always accede to requests: “Come on, Clint, do ‘Old Shep’,” shouts a member of the audience. “Let the poor dog rest,” says Clint.

I remember the first time I saw Clint at one of the Merseysippi’s residences at the Albert Dock and there was a collection for Clint’s airfare, which struck me as sad. Any performance on the mainland has to be tempered with the cost of air travel. Clint no longer has his boarding house and his income comes from his pension and from performances – certainly not from records. Like many 50s artists, he signed a tightwad contract with Pye, apparently in perpetuity, and after the compilation, ‘Run To The Door’, sold its first 1,000 copies, Clint got a cheque for £300. Even pantomimes have dried up. “But what does it matter?” he concluded, “The last pantomime I had was just ten days’ work.”

A few weeks ago I spoke to Clinton after he had returned from a festival at Hayling Island Jazz Festival. He had performed with Fidgety Feet, Sir Alan’s Jazz Band (featuring the drummer Alan Buckley) and Bob Kerr’s Whoopee Band. “It was fantastic,” said Clinton, “I got a standing ovation so even though I hadn’t been well, it was worth going. I met Doug Wright who had been the drummer in the John Barry Seven. He could remember the audience barracking me at the Royal Albert Hall.”

It’s too late now but I wish Clint had been rediscovered like Tony Christie or the Buena Vista Social Club. He may be the last person to be singing these great old songs with any authenticity and he has a marvellous comic persona. There will always be the occasional folk group doing music hall songs like Cosmatheka and although they delve into their background and perform them well, it isn’t the same as Clinton Ford with the equivalent of a pit orchestra.

I wish I had the resources and marketing know-how to make an album of Clinton with the Merseysippis where I could select songs that he hadn’t previously recorded. I did half-suggest setting up a label. “And what are you going to call it,” said Clint, “Mortuary Records?”

CLINTON FORD - DISCOGRAPHY

Spencer Leigh: “I’m putting a discography with this feature which will cover all the records you’ve made.”
Clinton Ford: “What’s the point of that?”
“There are Clinton Ford completists out there who would like to know of everything you’ve ever made.”
“Well, I’m certainly not one myself.”

Singles
Clinton Ford’s Oriole singles up to and including Red Indian Christmas Carol were issued on both 78 rpm and 45 rpm. All other singles are 45 rpm.
Sweet Sixteen / Eleven More Months And Ten More Days (Oriole CB 1425, 1958)
In The Sweet Bye And Bye / Jesus Remembered Me (with Hallelujah Skiffle Group, Oriole CB 1427, 1958)
I Saw The Light / A Closer Walk With Thee (with Hallelujah Skiffle Group, Oriole CB 1429, 1958)
Alexander’s Ragtime Band / Bees Knees (A-side only, as Al St George with the Merseysippi Jazz Band, Esquire 20-093, 1958)
I Cried A Tear / You Were Only Teasin’ (Oriole CB 1483, 1959)
Old Shep / Nellie Dean Rock (Oriole CB 1500, 1959, No.27)
Lovesick Blues / Give A Little Take A Little (Oriole CB 1516, 1959)
Red Indian Christmas Carol / Silver Threads Among The Gold (Oriole CB 1518, 1959)
Mustapha / Two Brothers (Oriole CB 1551, 1961)
Oh, By Jingo! / Get Out And Get Under (Oriole CB 1612, 1961)
Too Many Beautiful Girls / Everybody’s Doin’ It (Oriole CB 1623, 1961, No.48)
Fanlight Fanny / Dreamy City Lullaby (Oriole CB 1706, 1962, No.22)
What More Can I Say? / Ever Since The Day You Left Town (Oriole CB 1729, 1962)
Under The Bamboo Tree / Who’s Next In Line (Oriole CB 1747, 1962)
Opening Night In Loveland / Madam Moscovitch (Oriole CB 1768, 1962)
Popsy Wopsy / You Can Tell Her Anything Under The Sun If You Tell Her Under The Moon (Oriole CB 1798, 1963)
Fanlight Fanny’s Daughter / I Haven’t Told Her, She Hasn’t Told Me (Oriole CB 1822, 1963)
Rainbow / On Mother Kelly’s Doorstep (Oriole CB 1884, 1963)
A Beggar In Love / When The Melody Man Says Goodnight (Columbia DB 7065, 1963)
The Old Bazaar In Cairo / Honey Baby (Columbia DB 7170, 1963)
Southdown USA / Honey Baby (Columbia DB 7220, 1964)
The Wedding / Sleepy Valley Lullaby (Columbia DB 7307, 1964)
Oh, Johnny! Oh Johnny! Oh! / Since I Found You (Columbia DB 7413, 1964)
Dandy / Why Don’t Women Like Me (Piccadilly 7N 35343, 1966)
Run To The Door / Best Job Yet – Made You Mine (Piccadilly 7N 35361, 1966, No.25)
(Clinton comments, “I also did Italian versions of ‘Dandy’ and ‘Run To The Door’. There was an Italian coach and the whole thing took two days. I’ve never taken longer to make a record.”)
This Song Is Just For You / Take Care On The Road (Piccadilly 7N 35378, 1967)
Mustapha / Turkish Delight (as Ali Bendhown, Pye 7N 35395, 1967)
Dance With A Dolly / The Streets Of Laredo (Piccadilly 7N 35404, 1967)
The Last One To Say Goodnight / The Greatest Clown (Pye 7N 17428, 1967)
American Girl / Cathy I Love You (Pye 7N 17521, 1968)
Give A Little, Take A Little/ West Wind, Blow Me Home (Pye 7N 17572, 1968)
The Sounds Of Goodbye / Try A Little Tenderness (Pye 7N 17628, 1968)
Moonlight Brings Memories / Now That You’ve Gone (Pye 7N 17718, 1969)
Lonelyville / Cielito Lindo (Pye 7N 17766, 1969)
Angel In My Pocket / Lorena (Pye 7N 17838, 1969)
Turn The Good Times On / The Pockets Of One Little Boy (Pye 7N 45079, 1970)
Silver Threads Among The Gold / Red Indian Christmas Carol (Galaxy GX 45, 1975)
Jersey Lily / Forget Yesterday (Channel CR 101, 1976)

EPs
CLINTON FORD GOES TRADITIONAL (with Merseysippi Jazz Band, Oriole EP 7027, 1960)
I Wish I Was In Peoria / Get Out And Get Under / Oh, By Jingo! / Wana
A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE (with Hallelujah Skiffle Group, Oriole OEP 7035, 1960)
A Closer Walk With Thee / I Saw The Light / In The Sweet Bye And Bye / Jesus Remembered Me
FANNY BY FANLIGHT (Oriole OEP 7068, 1962)
Fanlight Fanny / What More Can I Say? / Ever Since The Day You Left Town / Who’s Next In Line?
CLINT (Oriole OEP 7069, 1962)
Everything Is Peaches Down In Georgia / A Little White Gardenia / Sleepy Time Gal / I Wouldn’t Leave My Little Wooden Hut For You
CLINT ALL OVER AGAIN (Oriole OEP 7071, 1962)
Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night? / What A Little Moonlight Can Do / And He’d Say ‘Oo-La-La-Wee-Wee’ / Huggin’ And A-Chalkin’
THE MELODY MAN (Columbia SEG 8314, 1963)
A Beggar In Love / Just A Girl That Men Forget / By The Fireside / When The Melody Man Says Goodnight
DANDY (Pye NEP 34057, 1966)
Dandy / This Song Is Just For You / The Old Bazaar In Cairo / Run To The Door

Albums
LARKIN’ SINGIN’ – A SING-UP OF COCKNEY SONGS (10 inch LP by David Kossoff, Oriole MG 20043, 1961)
Clinton Ford: “I did some background singing for a David Kossoff album which was of songs, supposedly recorded in a pub but it was actually David in the studio with the Mike Sammes Singers. I’d gone into the studio to see Reg Warburton and he said, ‘Clint, we’ve got a part for you.’ I had a few lines to say and you can hear me in the chorus of ‘I’m Shy, Mary Ellen, I’m Shy’.”
CLINTON FORD WITH THE GEORGE CHISHOLM ALL STARS (Oriole PS 40021/SPS 40022, 1962)
Everything Is Peaches Down In Georgia / And He’d Say ‘Oo-La-La-Wee-Wee’ / Sleepy Time Gal / I Wouldn’t Leave My Little Wooden Hut For You / A Little White Gardenia / What More Can I Say? / Fanlight Fanny / Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night? / Louise / What A Little Moonlight Can Do / Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula / Please / Huggin’ And A-Chalkin’ / My Little Bimbo
COUNTRY STYLE – ANCIENT AND MODERN (Oriole PS 40025/SPS 40026, 1962)
Charlie’s Shoes / Someday You’ll Call My Name / You Go To Your Church (I’ll Go To Mine) / My Daddy Is Only A Picture / My Little Lady / Forget Yesterday / I Wonder If You Know / (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle / The Long Black Veil / The Richest Poor Boy / Midnight In Heaven / Keep On The Sunny Side
IT’S ALL HAPPENING HERE! (Various artists, Oriole MG 20046, 1963)
Don’t Bring Lulu / Goodbye Dolly Grey
OH, BY JINGO! (Realm RM 147, 1963)
Mid-priced compilation of previously issued tracks
THE MELODY MAN (Columbia SX 1560/SCX 3496, 1963)
By The Fireside / Da-Dar, Da-Dar / Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider / Wait For Me Mary / Honeymoon / She Don’t Wanna / A Beggar In Love / I Never See Maggie Alone / When My Baby Smiles At Me / Just A Girl Men Forget / The Wild Wild Women / If I Had The Lamp Of Aladdin / Dumb Doris / When The Melody Man Says Goodnight
LISTEN WITH US (Columbia 33SX 1689, 1965)
Johnny Peddler / Nature Boy / Oh Johnny! Oh Johnny! Oh! / Prisoner Of Love / San Miguel / Hold Me / Let The Great Big World Keep Turning / Since I Found You / Lonely In A Crowd / To Each His Own / Our Love Affair / Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out / Maggie May / Let The Curtain Come Down
DANDY (Pye NPL 38028/NSPL 38028, 1966)
Dandy / Somewhere My Love / Run To The Door / I Love Me / Cielito Lindo / Take Care On The Roads / The Old Bazaar In Cairo / The Lancashire Toreador / We Three / Old Shep / Some Sunday Morning / Best Job Yet – Made You Mine / Hierst Du Mein Heimliches Rufen / Why Don’t Women Like Me
BIG WILLIE BROKE JAIL TONIGHT (Pye NPL 38034/SNPL 38034, 1967)
Wolverton Mountain / Lonelyville / Big Willie Broke Jail Tonight / Rhythm Of The Rain / No Trace Of You / El Paso / Adios Alita / Tumbling Tumbleweeds / The Streets Of Laredo / Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain / Shepherd Of My Heart / This Song Is Just For You
CLINTON THE CLOWN (with George Chisholm and the Inmates, Pye NPL 18210/NSPL 18210, 1968)
My Baby’s Wild About My Old Trombone / The Old Bazaar In Cairo / He Played His Ukelele As The Ship Went Down / The Pig Got Up And Slowly Walked Away / The Night I Appeared As Macbeth / The Biggest Balalika In The World / Riley’s Cowshed / Fandance Fanny / The Old Fashioned Bustle My Grandmother Wore / When It’s Night Time In Italy, It’s Wednesday Over Here / Rhymes / Burlington Bertie
CLINTON FORD SINGS FANLIGHT FANNY (Hallmark HM 509, 1968)
Budget reissue of Oriole PS 40021 but omitting Sleepy Time Gal, A Little White Gardenia, Louise and Please. Effectively, a spoiler for ‘Clinton The Clown’.
GIVE A LITTLE TAKE A LITTLE (Pye NPL 18240/NSPL 18240, 1968)
Your Lily White Hands / Honey / The Sounds Of Goodbye / Rememberin’ / Moonlight Gambler / Little Green Apples / The Last One To Say Goodnight / My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time / The Greatest Clown / Cathy I Love You / Try A Little Tenderness / Give A Little Take A Little
CLINTON THE CLOWN (Marble Arch MALS 1224)
Budget reissue
SONGS FOR CHILDREN AGED FROM ONE TO A HUNDRED (Marble Arch MAL 1106/MALS 1106)
Teddy Bears’ Picnic / Puff The Magic Dragon / Michael Finnegan / Miss Hooligan’s Christmas Cake / Aba-daba Honeymoon / Little White Donkey / Oh Dear What Can The Matter Be / Daisy Bell / Rosemary And Thyme / The Oyster Song
COUNTRY ANTIQUES (Marble Arch MALS 1404, 1971)
Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way / Cold Cold Heart / Tennessee Waltz / Candy Kisses / I Love You 1,000 Ways / Rub-a-dub-dub / Swing Wide Your Gate Of Love / Waltz Of The Wind / The Old Rugged Cross / Hand Me Down Heart / Strange Little Girl / When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold
COUNTRY AND GOSPEL (no label given, cassette, mid-70s)
Ghost Riders In The Sky / Blue Bayou / Fatback Louisiana / Mi Amigo / Old Shep / How Great Thou Art / Whispering Hope / Just A Little While To Stay Here / Just A Closer Walk With Thee / My Friend
CLINTON’S CHRISTMAS CHOICE (no label given, cassette, mid-70s)
Here Comes Santa Claus / Blue Christmas / Silver Bells / White Christmas / O Little Town Of Bethlehem / Stille Nacht (Silent Night) / We Three Kings / The American Indian Carol / Little Snowflakes / I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Clinton Ford: “I made those two cassettes with David Windle whose ambition was to be the organist at Blackpool Tower. He made it too. ‘Little Snowflakes’ was a new song given to me by Bob Turner of the NDO. I loved doing ‘Silent Night’ in German as the words are so lovely.”
MI AMIGO (British Country, CVY, cassette, late 70s)
Blue Eyes Cryin’ In The Rain / Waltz Across Texas (two versions) / The Old Rugged Cross / Eighteen Yellow Roses / Jambalaya / Mi Amigo / Just Out Of Reach / Singing The Blues / Who’s Next In Line / Jesus Remembered Me
LET ME SING A JOLSON SONG (with the Alan Elsdon Band, Chevron CHVL 142, 1979)
Let Me Sing And I’m Happy / You Made Me Love You – Swanee / Down Among The Sheltering Palms / Pretty Baby / Back In Your Own Back Yard / By The Light Of The Silvery Moon/ Waitin’ For The Robert E. Lee / Baby Face / Little Pal / Ma’ Blushing Rosie / Avalon / Chinatown My Chinatown
(There might be an earlier version of this album as the tracks were recorded in 1975.)
OH, YOU CALIFORNIA (guesting with Merseysippi Jazz Band, Sun Coast SCR 104, 1985)
Oh You California / Get Out And Get Under / Muddy Water / My Cutey’s Due At 2.22 / Mandy Make Up Your Mind / Bedelia
OH YOU CALIFORNIA (cassette, Ribbet / Sun Coast RTS 822, 1985)
The LP plus two extra tracks including Clinton’s Doodle-doo-doo
30 SMASH HITS OF THE WAR YEARS, VOLUME 2 (Warwick WW 5006, 1975)
Band Of H.M. Guards Division and Chorus. Clinton is guest vocalist on There’ll Always Be An England and Land Of Hope And Glory. Album is produced by his chum, Brian Matthew.
SUMMER OF 85, VOLUME 1 (No label given, cassette, 1985)
Fanlight Fanny / The Sunshine Of Your Smile / Old Shep / The Old Bazaar In Cairo / Ar Hyd Y Nos (All Through The Night) / Ghost Riders In The Sky / If / My Melancholy Baby / Shakes Hands With Millions / My Friend
Clinton Ford: “I was doing a summer season in Hunstanton and I said to the drummer and the organist, ‘Let’s make a record.’ We did it but I don’t think anyone bought it, so there wasn’t a Volume 2. There are a few nice things on it. I’m singing ‘All Through The Night’ in Welsh and I also took Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’ and wrote a melody for it.”
JAZZ YOU LIKE IT (PAR 491SC, cassette, late-80s)
A cassette by the Bristol-based Pete Allen Jazz Band on which Clint sings My Melancholy Baby and Chesapeake Bay

CDs
HEROES OF BRITISH JAZZ (Pulse PBX CD 451, 4-CD, 1999)
The Old Bazaar In Cairo / My Baby’s Wild About My Old Trombone / Fandance Fanny + various artists
SENIOR MOMENTS (Guesting with Merseysippi Jazz Band, Lake LACD 113, 1999)
Alexander’s Ragtime Band (the Al St George recording!)
SEQUEL’S SIXTIES CHRISTMAS (Sequel NEMCD 984, 1999)
Miss Hooligan’s Christmas Cake + various artists
CLINTON FORD SINGS, ALAN ELSDON SWINGS (Lake LACD 151, 2001)
This CD features all of Let Me Sing A Jolson Song except Pretty Baby. Some instrumentals by Alan Elsdon and his Band have been added.
RUN TO THE DOOR – THE PICCADILLY/PYE ANTHOLOGY (2-CD, Sequel CMDDD502, 2002)
Previously issued material on 57 track compilation

My thanks to Ossie Dales, Mal Jefferson and Mick O’Toole in preparing this piece. It’s always good to be talking Clinton and even better to be talking to Clinton. My thanks also to the BBC Written Archives in Caversham for being able to look through their extraordinary files.