Elton Hayes (1915-2001) 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).
Today he is sadly almost forgotten, but Hayes was very well-known to radio and television audiences of the 1950’s as ‘the man with the small guitar’ and Paul McCartney recollects that it was his song Whistle My Love from Robin Hood that influenced the Beatles composition Little Child in 1963. There is also a belief by some that a certain Reginald Kenneth Dwight of Pinner, Middlesex, changed his name to Elton John in respect of the actor and guitarist.
Recently I posted a list of Elton Hayes’s songs that have been released on record down the years. I knew it was incomplete and asked for help. Luckily I was contacted by our regular visitor Geoff Waite.
A while ago Geoff sent me a wonderfully detailed obituary of Elton Hayes by Evelyn Branston which is available to be read on this blog. Geoff is a fan of the film and has extensively researched Elton Hayes’s back catalogue. He has now very kindly helped me update my list of Elton’s recordings and sent some interesting facts to go with it.
Many of my readers have complained that there is no CD collection of Elton’s songs available and Geoff agrees:
“Except for two tracks, none of Elton’s recordings ever made it from 10 inch 78rpm and 45 rpm vinyl to CD. ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ continues to feature on an EMI ‘Hello Children Everywhere’ compilation CD whilst ‘Whistle my Love’ the only other Elton Hayes track to reach CD (again on an earlier ‘Hello Children Everywhere’ compilation) has not been available for some years now to my knowledge.
When I contacted them about the possibility of an Elton Hayes compilation, EMI told me that they now only own these two recordings, so a CD release of Elton’s Parlophone songs is sadly out of the question. It really is a great shame that his recorded music which amounts to some forty plus songs, not including the Robin Hood album, should be so shabbily overlooked by the CD generation.”
It certainly is a great shame that today’s children are unable to hear the wonderful songs of ‘the man with the small guitar.’ Surely something could be done to put some of his music onto CD!
ELTON HAYES SONGLIST
THE TABLE AND THE CHAIR / THE JUMBLIES
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1950
THE WILD COLONIAL BOY/ BACK TO HILO
78 RPM Melodisc Records 1950/51
JUST A WEARYIN’ FOR YOU/ THE PHANTOM
STAGE-COACH
‘Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood’
78 RPM 2LP Capitol US Released 1952
(Included 20 page colour story book)
(Included songs by Elton Hayes)
WHISTLE MY LOVE / RIDDLE DE DIDDLE DE-DAY
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1952
THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER / SPINNING WHEEL
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1952
I PASS ALL MY HOURS / COURTIN' IN THE KITCHEN
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1952
THE BROOM, THE SHOVEL, THE POKER AND THE TONGS / THE QUANGLE WANGLE'S HAT
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1952
THE LITTLE BLACK HORSE / NOT THE MARRYING KIND
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1953
LITTLE MOHEE / THE PHANTOM STAGE-COACH
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1953
THE DUCK AND THE KANGAROO / THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1953
ALL AROUND MY HAT/ THE UNQUIET GRAVE
78 RPM HMV B1052 Released 1953
(Recorded under the auspices of the English Folk Dance and Song Society)
A FROG HE WOULD A WOOING GO/OH THE CUCKOO SHE’S A PRETTY BIRD
78 RPM HMV B1053 Released 1953
GREENSLEEVES / JOE THE CARRIER LAD
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1953
I HAD A HIPPOPOTAMUS / ADELPHI ARCHES
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1954
MY HEART IS LIKE A NIGHTINGALE / BOLD BLACK KNIGHT
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1954
‘FOR THE CHILDREN’
EP Parlophone UK Released 1955
The Table and the Chair/ The Jumblies/The Broom, the Shovel, the Poker and the Tongs/ The Quangle Wangles Hat / The Duck and the Kangaroo / The Owl and the Pussycat.
JAQUELINE / LITTLE BRIDGET FLYNN
78 RPM Parlophone UK Released 1956
‘Folk Songs’
EP 45 World Record Club 1956/57
SWEET MAID IF YOU MARRY / OH GOOD ALE / I PASS ALL MY HOURS/ THE LONDON BEAU/
’TISS TRUE I NEVER WAS IN LOVE/ THE VAIN DREAMER
‘Songs for Children’
EP 45 World Record Club 1956/57
THE CUCKOO CLOCK / THE SOLDIER /THE HOUSEWIFE AND THE HIGHWAYMAN / TWO PIRATES
‘Elton Hayes Sings to his Small Guitar’
EP 45 Parlophone UK Released 1959
JOE THE CARRIER LAD / THE MILLER’S DAUGHTER
THE PHANTOM STAGE-COACH / RIDDLE DE DIDDLE DE DAY
‘The Story of Robin Hood’
LP 33 RPM EMI Music for Pleasure MFP 1285
UK Released 1963
(Movie Soundtrack)
RIDDLE-DE-DIDDLE-DE-DAY
COME SING LOW, COME SING HIGH
‘The Story of Robin Hood’
LP 33 RPM Disneyland DQ-1249 USA Released 1963
(Alternative Cover)
(Movie Soundtrack)
RIDDLE-DE-DIDDLE-DE-DAY
COME SING LOW, COME SING HIGH
‘Disneyland Doubles’
45 RPM Disneyland Doubles UK Released 1971
THE BALLAD OF ROBIN HOOD
(Reverse side was the Ballad of Davy Crocket)
‘Hello Children Everywhere Volume 4’
(Various Artists)
CD Disc EMI Released 1991
WHISTLE MY LOVE
‘Hello Children Everywhere’
(Various Artists)
CD 3 Discs EMI 6999605 Released 2005
THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT
If you see any errors or have any more information that can be added to the Elton Hayes Songlist please get in touch and if you are a CD producer how about releasing some of these gems!
Please click on the Label Elton Hayes to read more about his life.
7 comments:
Elton Hayes Songlist
Special thanks to Geoff Waite
Awesome!
~Kendra
I see that one of the titles is Bold Black Knight 1954 and that must come from the Alan Ladd film The Black Knight in which Elton had a part which apparently was cut - except for him singing on the opening credits. It was filmed in England also. Again surprised to see that the LPs from the film soundtrack of Robin Hood were released as late as 1963 some eleven years after the film release. Wonder why. The Disney organisation would very well know what they were doing and Walt himself would have been in charge at that time but it still seems unusual. Maybe shows the staying power of the film - I think it had a release again later in the 50s - maybe someone would confirm that as I am not at all sure.
I have many of these songs on 78. Email me. I wish to trade for the 45 with "The Vain Dreamer"
Great article, and very useful for my research on all Disney-related music.
Just one thing: Reg Dwight didn't take his stage name from Elton Hayes but rather from another great, jazz musician Elton Dean. BTW, he took the "John" part from his friend Long John Baldry, not from John Lennon as that myopic, pardon, biopic would have us believe.
Cheerio,
Ayrton
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