IT WOULDN'T SURPRISE ME A BIT
(from 'Johnny Jones') (Grey & Cuvillier)
COLUMBIA F1058 recorded 27 July 1920
George Robey (real name George Edward Wade) was born in 1869 and began his career as a music-hall comedian in 1891. He developed his act, doing character songs with patter much in the manner pioneered by Dan Leno. and rapidly became very popular. One of his favourite techniques was to rebuke the audience for laughing at him - which of course provoked even more laughter. As his popularity increased he was billed as 'The Prime Mininster of Mirth'. His material sounds old-fashioned now (Spike Milligan once commented that the only thing funny about George Robey was his knighthood), but you can still hear the character details which he relied on rather than a string of jokes. He made numerous records and appeared in a few films, most famously as Sancho Panza in the 1933 Don Quixote (with Chaliapine in the title role) and briefly as the dying Falstaff in Olivier's Henry V. He was knighted in 1954, the year he died. Unusually most of his records are 12 inches rather than the 10 inches used for most comedy records. (Mouse over the list for notes.)
TEMPT ME NOT
(not credited)
HMV C550 recorded 5 December 1911
IF YOU WERE THE ONLY BOY IN THE WORLD,
AND I WERE THE ONLY GIRL (from 'The
Bing Boys are Here') with Violet Loraine

(Clifford Grey & Nat D. Ayer)
COLUMBIA L1035 recorded April 1916
AND THAT'S THAT
(Robey)
HMV C617 recorded 19 May 1915
MRS. B
(not credited)
HMV C549 recorded September 1907
I THINK I SHALL SLEEP WELL TONIGHT
(not credited)
HMV C549 recorded 20 October 1908
IN OTHER WORDS (from 'The Bing Boys
are Here')
(Clifford Grey & Nat D. Ayer))
COLUMBIA L1035 recorded April 1916
THE MAYOR OF MUDCOMDYKE
(Robey)
HMV C551 recorded c. May 1907