“Please Leave My Butter Alone.” Recorded by Elsie Carlisle on December 27, 1940 in the context of war rationing:

“Everybody pinches my butter;
They won’t leave my butter alone!
And nothing is better than butter
For keeping the old man at home.

Everybody says I’m old-fashioned
To sit on the things that are rationed, etc.”

Please Leave My Butter Alone – Elsie Carlisle

Video by Twenties Girl (YouTube)

It must have seemed obvious to have Miss Carlisle express herself with such double-entendre, but the song had actually been first recorded that year by Elsie and Doris Waters (a.k.a. Gert and Daisy). There was even a version by the comedian Arthur Askey:

Arthur Askey – Please Leave My Butter Alone

Video by Andrew Oldham (YouTube)

All of which raises the question: in wartime, if you were inclined to pinch someone’s butter, whose butter would you pinch?