Any Old Iron (song)
Encyclopedia
"Any Old Iron" is an old British
Music hall
song
written by Charles Collins, Fred Terry
and E.A. Sheppard. The song was made famous by Harry Champion
, who sang it as part of his act and recorded it.
Scunthorpe United ("The Iron") Have adopted this song, and it is played before all of their home games.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
written by Charles Collins, Fred Terry
Fred Terry
Fred Terry was an English actor and theatrical manager. After establishing his reputation in London and in the provinces for a decade, he joined the company of Herbert Beerbohm Tree where he remained for four years, meeting his future wife, Julia Neilson...
and E.A. Sheppard. The song was made famous by Harry Champion
Harry Champion
William Crump , better known by the stage name Harry Champion, was an English music hall composer, singer and Cockney comedian, whose onstage persona appealed chiefly to the working class communities of East London...
, who sang it as part of his act and recorded it.
Scunthorpe United ("The Iron") Have adopted this song, and it is played before all of their home games.
Other versions
- In 1957, Peter SellersPeter SellersRichard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
recorded a rendition in a voiceHuman voiceThe human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...
he created for The Goon ShowThe Goon ShowThe Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
, Willium "Mate" Cobblers. It reached No. 17 in the UK Singles ChartUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
that year.
- It was performed on The Muppet ShowThe Muppet ShowThe Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...
by Kermit the FrogKermit the FrogKermit the Frog is puppeteer Jim Henson's most famous Muppet creation, first introduced in 1955. He is the protagonist of many Muppet projects, most notably as the host of The Muppet Show, and has appeared in various sketches on Sesame Street, in commercials and in public service announcements over...
, joined by Fozzie BearFozzie BearFozzie Bear is a Muppet, created by Jim Henson. He is an orange, particularly fuzzy bear who works as a stand-up comic and has a catchphrase, "Wocka Wocka Wocka". Shortly after telling the joke, he is usually the target of rotten tomatoes and ridicule, especially from hecklers Statler and Waldorf...
, two Anything Muppets, and the audience.
- It was performed by Roger DaltreyRoger DaltreyRoger Harry Daltrey, CBE , is an English singer and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in a large number of films, theatre and television roles and also...
, accompanied by The ChieftainsThe ChieftainsThe Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:...
, in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1992. A recording of the performance appears on the album An Irish Evening.
- It was also sung by Lonnie DoneganLonnie DoneganAnthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...
.
- The Barron Knights used the tune and some of the lyrics of the song in a satire on punk, in the late 1970s.
- British comedian Bill BaileyBill BaileyBill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...
, along with the BBC Concert OrchestraBBC Concert OrchestraThe BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....
, as part of his live show "Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra", mixed the song in as part of a "Cockney Arrangement" of the "William Tell OvertureWilliam Tell OvertureThe William Tell Overture is the instrumental introduction to the opera Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music and secular vocal...
".
- The song was used, with different lyrics, in television advertisementTelevision advertisementA television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
s for HammeriteHammeriteHammerite is a brand of paint made by Hammerite Products Limited, a subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries PLC.-Company history:Hammerite paint was first developed in 1962 by Allen Forster and later manufactured at the Flannigan's factory in Prudhoe. The company also produced the anti-corrosion...
and Smoothrite paint.
- There is a scene in the movie "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" where the ambivalent villain Lord Johnson-Johnson calls for unlicensed "rogue" androids to submit to their collection and destruction by calling out 'Any old iron! Any old iron!'
- There is a sequence in the movie "Yellow SubmarineYellow Submarine (film)Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated musical fantasy film based on the music of The Beatles. It is also the title for the film's soundtrack album, released as part of The Beatles' music catalogue. The film was directed by animation producer George Dunning, and produced by United Artists and King...
" when the real Beatles are confronted with their look-alikes trapped in a blue glass sphere, inspiring JohnJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
to go off on an abstruse invocation of Einstein's Theory of RelativityTheory of relativityThe theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
, to which PaulPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
's response is to sing 'Any old iron! Any old iron! Any any any old iron!'