"The Sun Has Got His Hat On" is a song by Noel Gay and

Ralph Butler Ralph Thomas Butler (12 October 1886 – 8 April 1969) was a British songwriter, responsible for the lyrics of many popular songs of the 1930s and later, mostly with comic or novelty elements. He was active as a songwriter from the late 1920s unti ...

. It is known for its appearance in the 1985 version of the

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwo ...

'' Me and My Girl'', and was originally recorded in 1932 by two popular UK dance bands – Ambrose and his Orchestra, with vocals by

Sam Browne General Sir Samuel James Browne, (3 October 1824 – 14 March 1901) was a British Indian Army cavalry officer, known best as the creator of the Sam Browne belt. He was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the most prestigious award for gallantr ...

, and by the Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra with vocals by Val Rosing.

Controversy over lyrics

In the original 1932 version of the song, the second verse contains the lines

He's been tanning niggers out in
Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

Now he's coming back to do the same to you

Use of the word "

nigger In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...

" was considered socially acceptable by British audiences in the 1930s, but is generally regarded as offensive today. The word is found in both the

Ambrose Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promot ...

and Henry Hall recordings of the song. In the

Jonathan King Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, ...

version, released in 1971 under the artist name "Nemo", the line was changed to "He's been tanning

Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

es". Modern performances of the song have instead included lines such as "He's been roasting peanuts" (written by

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

for his 1984 revival of ''Me and My Girl''). When ''

Calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a phy ...

'', an ITV1 news programme, broadcast a version of the song with the word in May 2012, a complaint was made to

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

ITV Yorkshire ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network. Until 1974, this was prima ...

described the incident as an "unintended mistake" and the matter was considered to be resolved after an apology. In May 2014, a listener complained after BBC Radio Devon presenter David Lowe played the Ambrose version of the song with the controversial word during his show on 27 April. He said he had not realised that the 1932 recording contained the word. Lowe was forced to resign, and although later offered his job back, he did not return.

References

1932 songs Songs from musicals Songs with lyrics by Ralph Butler Songs with music by Noel Gay {{show-tune-stub