Elton Hayes and The Beatles

Elton Hayes played the part of the minstrel Allan-a-Dale in Walt Disney’s live action movie the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). Hayes was very well-known to radio and television audiences of the 1950’s as ‘the man with the small guitar.’ After making his radio debut on Children’s Hour, Hayes occupied the guest star slot on every major radio variety show including In Town Tonight, Workers Playtime, Variety Bandbox, Terry Thomas’s To Town With Terry, Eric Barker’s Just Fancy and occasionally Housewives Choice.

But it was for singing Edward Lear’s nonsense rhymes on Children’s Favorites that he first became famous. Hayes’s version of The Owl and the Pussycat and many others were later recorded on the Parlophone record label. Elton Hayes published three 78-rpm records with Edward Lear songs, the first one in October 1950 (Parlophone R 3329) and containing The Table and the Chair and The Jumblies .

This was followed by Parlophone R 3602 (December 1952), containing The Broom, the Shovel, The Poker and the Tongs and The Quangle Wangle’s Hat, and Parlophone R 3692 (June 1953), with The Duck and the Kangaroo and The Owl and the Pussy-cat.
All six recordings were finally collected in the EP For The Children, Parlophone (GEP 8551) in 1955.

Another recording artist who started his recording career on the Parlophone label was Paul McCarntney. In the book Many Years From Now (1997) (Barry Miles’s biography of Paul McCartney) Paul claims that the melody behind the line "I'm so sad and lonely" from the Beatles song Little Child, was inspired by Elton Hayes’s Whistle My Love, from Disney's live-action 1952 film The Story Of Robin Hood And His Merrie Men.

Little Child later appeared on side 1, track 5 of the Beatles 1963 album With The Beatles.