''Elizabethan Serenade'' is a light music composition by Ronald Binge. When it was first played by the

Mantovani Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (; 15 November 1905 – 29 March 1980) was an Anglo-Italian conductor, composer and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' sta ...

orchestra in 1951, it was simply titled "Andante cantabile", although the original orchestral manuscript parts in Ronald Binge's own hand show the title "The Man in the Street" (possibly the title of an early television documentary). The name was altered by the composer to reflect the post-war optimism of a "new Elizabethan Age" that began with the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in February 1952. The piece won Binge an

Ivor Novello award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been ...

and also had chart success in Germany (recorded by the Günther Kallmann Choir in 1962) and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. A version with lyrics by poet

Christopher Hassall Christopher Vernon Hassall (24 March 1912 – 25 April 1963) was an English actor, dramatist, librettist, lyricist and poet, who found his greatest fame in a memorable musical partnership with the actor and composer Ivor Novello after worki ...

called ''Where the Gentle Avon Flows'' was released and the work also had lyrics added in German, Czech, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, Danish and French. The piece was used as the signature tune to ''Music in Miniature'' on the

BBC Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...

. In 1968, a

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

version titled "Elizabeth Reggae" by

Boris Gardiner Boris Gardiner (born 13 January 1943) is a Jamaican singer, songwriter and bass guitarist. He was a member of several groups during the 1960s before recording as a solo artist and having hit singles with " Elizabethan Reggae" (in 1970), " I Wann ...

& the Love People was released. It was re-issued as "Elizabethan Reggae" with a different b-side in 1969 (This version was initially erroneously credited to the track's producer,

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (known as Byron Lee's Dragonaires after Lee's death and now The Dragonaires) are a Jamaican ska, calypso and soca band. The band played a crucial pioneering role in bringing Caribbean music to the world. Byron ...

).Mike Care
Ronald Binge - A Tribute
at the

Robert Farnon Robert Joseph Farnon CM (24 July 191723 April 2005) was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a composer of original works (often in the light music genre), he was commissioned by film and ...

Society website. In 1982, Louise Tucker recorded a different vocal version entitled "Only For You" on the album ''

Midnight Blue Midnight blue is a dark shade of blue named for its resemblance to the apparently blue color of a moonlit night sky around full moon. Midnight blue is identifiably blue to the eye in sunlight or full-spectrum light, but can appear black unde ...

''.

References

1951 compositions Compositions by Ronald Binge {{composition-stub