''We All Had Doctors' Papers'' is a live album by

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

comedian and singer

Max Boyce Maxwell Boyce, (born 27 September 1943) is a Welsh comedian, singer and entertainer. He rose to fame in the mid-1970s with an act that combined musical comedy with his passion for rugby union and his origins in a South Wales mining community. B ...

, first issued in 1975 and recorded at Pontarddulais Rugby Club. It was his fourth album release and followed his breakthrough recording ''

Live at Treorchy ''Live at Treorchy'' is a live album by Welsh comedian and singer Max Boyce, first issued in 1974. It was his third album and his first for a major label, EMI Records. The album contains a mixture of comedic songs and poems along with Boyce's i ...

''. The album contains a mixture of comedic and traditional songs, along with Boyce's interactions with the crowd. Two songs on the album, "

Sosban Fach Sosban Fach (Welsh for "little saucepan") is a traditional Welsh folk song. It is one of the best-known and most often sung songs in the Welsh language. The song is based on a verse written by Mynyddog in 1873 as part of his song ''Rheolau yr Ae ...

" and "

Ar Lan y Môr "Ar Lan y Môr" ("Beside the Sea") is a traditional Welsh folk song. Various forms of the text exist, including some where the metre and subject of some verses suggest insertions from other unrelated songs. The song is a love song. As with many o ...

", are in the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

. It is the only comedy album to have topped the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

Album

''We All Had Doctors' Papers'' is a live recording similar to Boyce's recording of the previous year ''Live at Treorchy''. Just as ''Live at Treorchy'' was recorded at the town's local rugby club, Boyce continued his connection with the sport of

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

by recording ''We All Had Doctors' Papers'' at Pontarddulais Rugby Club. The album was recorded in one take over one night. The album title comes from the song "9-3" which appeared on ''Live at Treorchy''. Celebrating

Llanelli RFC Llanelli Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Llanelli) is a Welsh rugby union club founded on 30 March 1872. The club's historic home ground was Stradey Park in Llanelli, but they moved in 2008 to the new Parc y Scarlets in adjacent Pembe ...

's 1972 win over

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

, the lyrics of the fourth verse follow; ''"But we all had doctors' papers, and they all said just the same, that we all had Scarlet Fever, and we caught it at the game"''. Boyce, whose comedic songs are now linked to the sport of

, included four rugby songs, "I Gave My Love a Debenture", "Deck of Cards", "The Devil's Marking Me" and "Pontypool Front Row", the last of which celebrates the

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and British Lions trio of

Graham Price Graham Price MBE (born 24 November 1951 in Moascar, Egypt) is a former Welsh rugby union player, who was a member of the famous Pontypool RFC front row known as the "Viet Gwent". He won 41 caps for , and a record 12 for the British and Irish ...

Bobby Windsor Robert William Windsor (born 31 January 1948 in Newport, Monmouthshire), known as Bobby and nicknamed "The Duke", is a former rugby union player who gained 28 rugby union caps for Wales as a hooker between 1973 and 1979. Windsor published his au ...

and

Charlie Faulkner Anthony George "Charlie" Faulkner (born 27 February 1941, in Newport, Wales)Charlie Faulkner player p ...

. Of the songs on the album "Sospan Fach" and "Ar Lan y Môr" are both traditional Welsh folk songs, while "Swansea Town" is written by Swansea songwriter and composer, John M. Davies; the rest are original works by Boyce. "I Gave My Love a Debenture" is a parody of the song commonly known as "

I Gave My Love a Cherry "The Riddle Song", also known as "I Gave My Love a Cherry", is an English folk song, a lullaby carried over by settlers to the American Appalachians. History "The Riddle Song" descends from a 15th-century English song in which a maiden says ...

". The album cover and reverse is drawn by Welsh cartoonist

Gren Grenfell "Gren" Jones MBE (13 June 1934 – 4 January 2007) was one of Wales's best-known and longest-serving newspaper cartoonists. Biography The son of coal miner Harry Jones, Gren was born in Hengoed in the Rhymney Valley. Aged eight he b ...

, who became the first cartoonist to receive a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

from the record company

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, ...

. The cover shows a crowded and detailed rugby international match at the

Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park ( cy, Parc yr Arfau Caerdydd), also known as The Arms Park, is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green. The Arms Park was host to the British ...

, hidden in the crowd are several notable Welsh sportspeople and celebrities, such as comedian

Tommy Cooper Thomas Frederick Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. As an entertainer, his appearance was large and lumbering at , and he habitually wore a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army ...

Chart history

''We All Had Doctors' Papers'' was released in October 1975, and first entered the British album charts on 1 November at number nine. It rose the following week to number three before topping the charts on 15 November 1975 replacing

Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentleman ...

' '' 40 Golden Greats''. It only remained at number one for a single week, spending 17 weeks in total in the Top 40, dropping out of the chart on 17 January 1976. It was the first and only comedy album to reach the number one spot in the British charts.

Track listing

# "

" # "I Am an Entertainer" # "Ticketless (I Wandered Lonely)" # "I Gave My Love a Debenture" # "Rhondda Grey" # "Slow, Men at Work" # "Deck of Cards" # "Swansea Town" # "The Devil's Marking Me" # "

" # "Pontypool Front Row" # "Sosban Fach"

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:We All Had Doctors' Papers Max Boyce albums 1975 live albums EMI Records albums