Deram Record Story (Singles) Whistling Jack Smith "I Was Kyser Bill's Batman" 1967

 

Once upon a time in 1967, British Decca/Deram producer Noel Walker made a two-and-a-half-minute record featuring his own whistling backed by a veritable team of whistlers, electric organ, guitar, bass guitar, and trap drums. As fodder for this pixelated experiment he chose "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman" (initially entitled "Too Much Birdseed"), a cheerful but dangerously infectious air composed by ex-Kestrels Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook. For a pseudonym, Walker devised the name Whistling Jack Smith, a play on the name of vaudeville's famous Whispering Jack Smith

."I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman" was a hit single in 1967 composed by British songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. It was a novelty record, performed mostly by whistling. The name Whistling Jack Smith, credited on the most commercially successful recording, was a play on the name of the baritone singer of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Whispering Jack Smith.

The tune was written by Greenaway and Cook and was originally titled "Too Much Birdseed". It was recorded as a single for Deram Records by record producer Noel Walker, using studio musicians together with the Mike Sammes Singers. The whistling on the record was, according to most sources, by John O'Neill, a trumpeter and singer with the Mike Sammes Singers who was known for his whistling skill,though other sources credit Noel Walker. The song is noted for its false ending: after the song ends its last chorus, a male voice shouts "Oi" (on the album version) and "Hey" (on the single version); the tune starts up again with the repeated chorus, and fades out.

Credited to Whistling Jack Smith, the record rose up the UK singles chart. When it was featured on Top of the Pops, actor Coby Wells was used to mime the whistling, and later toured as the public face of Whistling Jack Smith. (Wells' real name was Billy Moeller; a brother of Tommy Moeller, lead vocalist, guitarist, and pianist with Unit 4 + 2). The recording reached #5 on the UK singles chart in March 1967, staying in the chart for 12 weeks, and peaked at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.

             

Pat Boone recorded a whistling version of the song in 1967. A vocal version of the song, as "Ich war der Putzer vom Kaiser", was recorded in German by Die Travellers, in the late 1960s. The German lyrics were credited to Fred Oldörp, a member of the group. The lyrics concern the batman, or Putzer ("cleaner") of the Kaiser, who evades combat because of his position. It has been suggested that the words derive from a First World War marching song, but this is unconfirmed.

Released in the U.K. as DM 112 (then in the U.S. as DM 85005), the peculiarly pleasant if somewhat shrill 45-rpm single shot to number 20 on the Billboard pop chart. Many who heard this whimsically invigorating march tempered with elements of the Twist broadcast over the radio never even caught the name of the tune. Indeed, the majority of comic strip-reading, television-dazed U.S. citizens would have been puzzled by the word "batman," capitalized in the song title but spelled with a lower-case "b" when used by the English to describe a military valet.

Although Whistling Jack Smith never actually existed (an enigma comparable to that of Italo Calvino's Nonexistent Knight), he had the singular honor of not existing twice. The name was first applied to Noel Walker's invisible whistling homunculus, and then for publicity and puckered lip-sync public performance purposes to vocalist Coby Wells, aka Billy Moeller, then serving as roadie for his brother Tommy Moeller's band, Unit 4+2. Although four additional singles and an LP would appear under the name of Whistling Jack Smith, nothing was ever achieved by Walker and company that could approach the apex of human achievement represented by "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman."

Whistling Jack Smith – I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman

Label:

Deram – DM.112

Format:

Vinyl, 7", Single, 45 RPM

Country:

UK

Released:

1967

Genre:

Pop

Style:

Novelty

Tracklist

A I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman

Written-By – Greenaway, Cooke

2:20

B The British Grin And Bear

Written-By – Raymonde*, Walker

2:45

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