Ken Dodd – Where's Me Shirt

Ken Dodd wasn't the first or last comedian to have hit records, but his hits were distinctly uncomic. He had parallel careers as a successful comic, notably in kids telly, and as a crooner of unbearably saccharine syrupy ballads. If you listened to "Tears". "Love Is Like A Violin", "Promises", "More Than Love" "Let Me Cry On Your Shoulder" or "Tears Won't Wash Away These Heartaches" looking for a giggle, you'd be sadly, sadly disappointed. For every mind-altering, world-improving hippy anthem that misty-eyed sixties survivors remember, there were ten tin-pan-alley atrocities by Ken and his showbiz chums.

Even when Ken did make "funny" records, they usually concerned his truly awful comic creations, the Diddy Men, from his fantasy version of his real home town, Knotty Ash. Take it from me: i was a kid at the time — funny-peculiar, not funny-ha-ha.

But there was one shining exception that really makes all my analysis bunk. Yes, I've just wasted ten minutes of my life writing this, and twenty seconds of yours reading this. Because Ken did make one comic record in the sixties, that doesn't concern Dicky Mint, Mick the Marmalizer, Little Evan, Hamish McDiddy, Nigel Ponsonby-Smallpiece, Nicky Nugget, Sid Short or Smarty Arty. It's a belter, and here it is:

Listen:

Download Ken Dodd – Where's Me Shirt MP3 (rapidshare)