Music Of The 20th Century: 1900-1939

Little Miss Bouncer loves an announcer down at the BBC - an extraordinary early radio record from Flotsam and Jetsam, "Little Betty Bouncer" (1927) - the colours show the alternation between Flotsam's and Jetsam's singing:

Littlle Betty Bouncer is kind to her people,
And a nice girl, more or less,
But at present, no joke, she's causing her folks no end of deep destress.
For she's quite mad about a man she's never met,
And it's all though an elusive crystal-set.
Little Miss Bouncer loves an announcer down at the BBC.
She doesn't know his name,
But how she rejoices,
When she hears that voice of voices.
Absolutely tireless,
Sitting at the wireless,
Poor little Miss B.
It's the man who announces,
With a lot of passion in it,
"The Daventry shipping forecast will follow in a minute".
Little Miss Bouncer loves an announcer down at the BBC.

From http://www.tug.org/mail-archives/f_minor/msg01558.html

There used to be, in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, a venerable duo called Flotsam and Jetsam. Jetsam was Malcolm McEachern, a New-Zealander with one of the finest bass voices ever (his voice was so powerful it was reputed to have shattered more than one mechanical microphone until they moved him back to sing alongside the usual brass band accompanists). Flotsam was B C Hilliam, a Brit. Hilliam wrote the songs, played the piano and sang a strained tenor; McEachern sang a bass obligato and chuckled when necessary. They were the forerunners of Flanders and Swann. McEachern also sang some Handel and operatic stuff, but he and Hilliam were far better known as Flotsam and Jetsam and were loved for their popular songs, most of which were witty and quite melodious. Both of them died in the 1940s (possibly the 1950s). If you search for 'Flotsam...' in the databases of most of the Net's CD shops you will uncover not only two CDs released by Pearl/Flapper of the the two gents I have described above but also about 5 CDs released by a heavy metal group that goes under the same name. As I'm not a heavy metal fan I can't tell you if the heavy metal Flotsam and Jetsam are still current or have broken up.

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