“My Old Flame” – Ambrose and His Orchestra with Elsie Carlisle
Video by Julian Dyer (YouTube)
“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.”
Elsie Carlisle – “Please Leave My Butter Alone” (1939)
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?
