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When I'm Cleaning Windows (WORD)
When I'm Cleaning Windows (PDF)
"When I'm Cleaning Windows" was credited as written by George Formby, Harry Gifford and Frederick E. Cliffe. Formby performed the song in Ab in Keep Your Seats, Please. For the single release, the key was changed to Bb.
The song was so successful that George Formby recorded another version of the song entitled "The Window Cleaner (No. 2)". This song uses similar orchestration to the original version and it is about further things which were seen on a window cleaning round.
Due to the songs lyrics being racy for the time it was banned by the BBC from playing on the radio (late 1930s). The corporation's director John Reith stated that "if the public wants to listen to Formby singing his disgusting little ditty, they'll have to be content to hear it in the cinemas, not over the nation's airwaves"; Formby and his wife and manager Beryl Ingham were furious with the block on the song. In May 1941 Beryl informed the BBC that the song was a favourite of the royal family, particularly Queen Mary, while a statement by Formby pointed out that "I sang it before the King and Queen at the Royal Variety Performance". The BBC relented and started to broadcast the song. (Wikipedia)
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