England Swings — Roger Miller
I remember being puzzled the first time I heard the line “England swings like a pendulum do”. As a kid, I was thrown into panic at the grammar, whilst at the same time thinking “that singer has an amazing voice”.
Back in 1970s Britain, when I was growing up, country music didn’t get a lot of airtime, and it was seen as distinctly uncool in the midst of all the glam rock, and later punk, acts around at the time.
So Roger Miller’s honeyed, country-style tones really stood out on the few radio programmes which had a slightly wider musical brief than 1970s Top 40 radio.
I didn’t make a note of when I first heard “England Swings”, but it was almost certainly on Junior Choice, a popular BBC Radio request show for kids on a Saturday morning.
As a request show, they played pretty much what people asked for rather than slavishly following the charts. Although looking back, I’m not sure how many of the requests they played really came from the kids.
To put it charitably, there was a vastly wider range of musical tastes represented in the records played on Junior Choice than there was on the mainstream pop radio kids my age actually listened to at the time.
More than a few parents and grandparents had a hand in their children’s choices, I suspect.
