The Kangaroo Hop
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Billy Williams & Fred Godfrey — London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1912; ASCAP lists title as “Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother Cues,” with credit to Godfrey alone and publisher as Colgems EMI Music.
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Image source: thecinematrade.com, with permission |
“Animal” dances were all the rage just prior to the start of the Great War: the turkey trot, the camel walk, the grizzly bear, the bunny hop — and the king of the jungle, the fox trot, which was introduced in 1914 and remained a basic step for decades. Here, Billy Williams and Fred Godfrey offer an Antipodean specimen to the terpsichorean zoo. Amazingly, The Kangaroo Hop was revived from its long slumber for the comedy film The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (1975), in which Gene Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, and Marty Feldman inexplicably launch into an energetic rendition, though whether their choreography matches the moves suggested above is uncertain.
Recordings
Billy Williams recorded no fewer than eight versions of this song: ca. April 1912 for Favorite, 26 July 1912 for Zonophone, ca. August 1912 for Columbia, ca. September 1912 for Edison Blue Amberol, ca. September 1912 for Jumbo, ca. September 1912 for Pathé, ca. November 1912 for Homophon, and ca. August 1913 for Pilot. Reissues appeared on several other labels.1
Jack Charman as “Ted Yorke” (The Winner 2280, 1913)
Cosmotheka [Dave and Al Sealy], on LP “Wines And Spirits”
(Highway SHY-7001, 1977)
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Note
1 For comprehensive discographies of recordings by Billy Williams, see Brian Rust,
British Music Hall on Record (Harrow, UK: Gramophone, 1979); and Frank
Andrews and Ernie Bayly, Billy Williams’ Records: A Study in Discography
(Bournemouth, UK: Talking Machine Review, 1982). For a collection of recordings of
all the Billy Williams songs, see J.P. Myerscough, Billy Williams: All the Songs
[8-CD
set and accompanying notes] (Lowestoft, UK: Music Hall Masters, 2001).