"With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock" is a popular song by English entertainer

George Formby George Formby, (born George Hoy Booth; 26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961) was an English actor, singer-songwriter and comedian who became known to a worldwide audience through his films of the 1930s and 1940s. On stage, screen and record he s ...

, who recorded it in 1937. It was written by his regular songwriting team of

Harry Gifford Henry "Harry" Gifford (1884 – 1952) was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s. He played at representative level for Great Britain national rugby league team, Great Britain, England national ...

and Fred E. Cliffe, with input from Formby himself. The song was recorded on 24 January 1937, for

Regal Zonophone Records Regal Zonophone Records was a British record label formed in 1932, through a merger of the Regal and Zonophone labels. This followed the merger of those labels' respective parent companies – the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramopho ...

, and was released on a

78 rpm A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...

single as the B-side of his song "Oh, Dear Mother". It became one of Formby's signature songs. However, according to

Simon Frith Simon Webster Frith (born 1946) is a British sociomusicologist and former rock critic who specializes in popular music culture. He is Tovey Chair of Music at University of Edinburgh. Career As a student, he read PPE at Oxford and earned ...

, the management of

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

were concerned about broadcasting the song, because of its

sexual innuendo An innuendo is a hint, insinuation or intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely by allusion ...

s, in lines such as: "With my little stick of Blackpool

Rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, along the promenade I stroll / It may be sticky but I never complain, it's nice to have a nibble at it now and again"; "In my pocket it got stuck I could tell / 'Cos when I pulled it out I pulled my shirt off as well"; and "In the ballroom I went dancing each night / No wonder every girl I danced with stuck to me tight." The producer of one of Formby's live television programmes received a letter from a BBC manager in 1946 that stated "We have no record that 'With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock' is banned. We do however know, and so does Formby, that certain lines in the lyric must not be broadcast". The song is included on many later compilations of Formby's recordings.

References

External links

Formby sings "My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock"
1940
"With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock"
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

George Formby songs 1937 songs Songs written by George Formby Songs written by Fred E. Cliffe Songs written by Harry Gifford (songwriter) Songs banned by the BBC {{1930s-song-stub