Music
He sang for sixty years — operatic societies, village halls, day centres, and the Worshipful Company of Horners. What survives of it is paper and tape: the music he kept in boxes and binders, and thirty of his concerts recorded between 2004 and 2017.
His voice
One afternoon in 2011 he gave an old-time music hall programme — forty-one songs, his own patter between them, and the room singing along. These seven are from that afternoon. The recording is a home tape, so it sounds like the room it was made in.
- Champagne Charlie1866
- I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am1910
- Let's All Go Down the Strand1908
- Old Folks at Home1851
- Down at the Old Bull and Bush1903
- She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountaintraditional
- It's a Long Way to Tipperary1912
The sheet music
Sixty-two covers from the boxes and binders he kept. They are photographed as they were found — creased, mended with tape, and in places still carrying his pencil marks and the Post-it notes he used to sort them.
The songs he came back to
Thirty of his concerts survive on tape, recorded between 2004 and 2017. Across them he sang eight hundred and nine songs — five hundred and seventy-three different ones. These are the fifty-two he came back to three times or more. He closed thirteen of the thirty with Now Is the Hour.
- Now Is the Hour13 concerts
- Beautiful Dreamer6 concerts
- She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain6 concerts
- We'll Meet Again6 concerts
- Charmaine5 concerts
- Cheek to Cheek5 concerts
- Heart and Soul5 concerts
- I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover5 concerts
- Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)5 concerts
- Smoke Gets in Your Eyes5 concerts
- Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)4 concerts
- For Me and My Gal4 concerts
- Isle of Capri4 concerts
- Love Is the Sweetest Thing4 concerts
- My Blue Heaven4 concerts
- You Are My Sunshine4 concerts
- A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square3 concerts
- Ain't She Sweet3 concerts
- All the Things You Are3 concerts
- As Time Goes By3 concerts
- Deep in the Heart of Texas3 concerts
- Down at the Old Bull and Bush3 concerts
- Dream a Little Dream of Me3 concerts
- Everything Stops for Tea3 concerts
- Get Me to the Church on Time3 concerts
- I Can't Give You Anything but Love3 concerts
- I Only Have Eyes for You3 concerts
- It Ain't Gonna Rain No More3 concerts
- It's a Long Way to Tipperary3 concerts
- Jamaica Farewell3 concerts
- La Mer (Beyond the Sea)3 concerts
- Let's All Go Down the Strand3 concerts
- Love Walked In3 concerts
- Ma Belle Marguerite3 concerts
- On the Sunny Side of the Street3 concerts
- Pennies from Heaven3 concerts
- Puttin' On the Ritz3 concerts
- Singin' in the Rain3 concerts
- Sixteen Tons3 concerts
- Smile3 concerts
- Spanish Eyes3 concerts
- Strolling3 concerts
- Sweetheart (Will You Remember?)3 concerts
- The Cornish Are Best3 concerts
- The Nearness of You3 concerts
- The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill3 concerts
- They Say It's Wonderful3 concerts
- True Love3 concerts
- What a Wonderful World3 concerts
- When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along3 concerts
- Who's Sorry Now3 concerts
- You Were Meant for Me3 concerts