Right Said Fred (song)

"Right Said Fred" (also written "Right, Said Fred")[2] is a novelty song of 1962 written by Ted Dicks and Myles Rudge.[3][4]

"Right Said Fred"
Single by Bernard Cribbins
B-side"Quietly Bonkers"
Released29 June 1962[1]
StudioAbbey Road Studios
GenreNovelty song
Length2:20
LabelParlophone
Songwriter(s)Ted Dicks and Myles Rudge
Bernard Cribbins singles chronology
"The Hole in the Ground"
(1962)		 "Right Said Fred"
(1962)		 "Gossip Calypso"
(1962)

It is about three men (the narrator, "Fred" and "Charlie") working as manual labourers who are trying to move an unidentified item of furniture (probably a piano or an organ, as it is clarified that it has feet, a seat, handles and candleholders) in a building without success, eventually giving up after having dismantled the piece of furniture, part-demolished the building – including removing a door, a wall and the ceiling – and taking numerous tea breaks.[5]

The lyrics do not specify whether Fred recovers from "half a ton of rubble falling on the top of his dome" (slang for head) prior to the others having a final teabreak and going home. Dicks said that he was inspired to write the song by incidents that took place when he employed men to move a grand piano he had bought. The band Right Said Fred is named after the song.[6]

Recorded versions

"Right Said Fred" was famously recorded as a single by Bernard Cribbins and released by Parlophone in 1962. It reached number #10 in the UK Singles Chart.[7] Cribbins recorded it at the Abbey Road Studios with musical accompaniment, directed by Johnnie Spence.

Sound effects were added by the producer George Martin, who would later become famous for his work with the Beatles.[8] The B-side was the comedy love song "Quietly Bonkers", another Dicks-Rudge composition. The song was also recorded in 1966 by Tommy Quickly. That version was produced by Brian Epstein and backed by Ian Whitcomb, Jimmy Page and the Blue Flames.[9]

References
  1. Lewisohn, Mark (14 November 2013). "The Beatles - All These Years - Extended Special Edition: Volume One: Tune In". Little, Brown Book Group – via Google Books.
  2. "Bernard Cribbins - Right, Said Fred". Discogs.
  3. Leigh, Spencer (16 November 2007). "Myles Rudge: 'Right Said Fred' lyricist". The Independent.
  4. Leigh, Spencer (4 February 2012). "Ted Dicks: Co-writer of 'Right Said Fred' and 'Hole in the Ground'". The Independent.
  5. Dennis, Jon (2 May 2012). "Old music: Bernard Cribbins – Right Said Fred". The Guardian.
  6. Simpson, Dave (4 April 2017). "How we made Right Said Fred's I'm Too Sexy" – via www.theguardian.com.
  7. David Roberts. British Hit Singles & Albums. Guinness World Records Limited
  8. "Old music: Bernard Cribbins – Right Said Fred", The Guardian, 2 May 2012. Accessed 18 January 2016
  9. Martin Power (2016), No Quarter: The Three Lives of Jimmy Page, Omnibus, pp. 25–26, ISBN 9781783235360
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