Noel Gay
Encyclopedia
Noel Gay was born Reginald Moxon Armitage. He also used the name Stanley Hill professionally. He was a successful British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 of the 1930s and 1940s whose output comprised 45 songs as well as the music for 28 films and 26 London shows. Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley was an English author, biographer, critic, director, actor and broadcaster. He was the eldest son of actor Robert Morley and grandson of actress Dame Gladys Cooper, and wrote biographies of both...

 has commented that he was "the closest Britain ever came to a local Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...

".

Career

Armitage was born in Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....

, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School is an independent school in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. QEGS is distinct from most other schools in that it was founded by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1591 at the request of leading citizens in Wakefield 75 in total and some of whom formed the...

 before obtaining a scholarship at the age of 15 to attend the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

 in London, after which he attended university. He had become music director and organist at St. Anne's Church in London's Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

 district by the age of eighteen, prior a brief period of military service during WW1 and then studies at Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

. A precocious talent, he had deputised for the choirmaster of Wakefield Cathedral from the age of eight, becoming honorary deputy organist at twelve.

Whilst at Cambridge, Armitage's interest in religious music and composition declined as that in musical comedy grew. He began writing popular songs, using the stage name Noel Gay. According to Morley the name was derived "from a sign he read on a London bus in 1924: 'NOEL Coward and Maisie GAY in a new revue'." His pseudonym of Stanley Hill was used from time to time for his more sentimental work. After contributing to revues such as Stop Press he was commissioned to write the entire score and lyrics for André Charlot
André Charlot
André Eugene Maurice Charlot was a French impresario known primarily for the highly successful musical revues he staged in London between 1912 and 1937...

's 1926 revue. His next show was Clowns In Clover, which starred Cicely Courtneidge
Cicely Courtneidge
Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge DBE was an English actress and comedienne. The daughter of the producer Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End, by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.After the...

 and Jack Hulbert
Jack Hulbert
John Norman "Jack" Hulbert was a British actor, specialising primarily in comedy productions.-Biography:Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, he was the elder and more successful brother of Claude. He was educated at Cambridge and appeared in many shows and revues, mainly with the Cambridge Footlights. He...

, a husband-and-wife team of the time.

Gay's career blossomed due to his talent for writing catchy, popular melodies in styles ranging from music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 to operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

.

His most famous show, for which he contributed the music but not the lyrics, was Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....

. This originally opened in 1937 at the Victoria Palace Theatre
Victoria Palace Theatre
Victoria Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, opposite Victoria Station.-Origins:The theatre began life as a small concert room above the stables of the Royal Standard Hotel, a small hotel and tavern built in 1832 at what was then 522 Stockbridge...

, London and, after a shaky start, gained popularity when the BBC broadcast it live on radio on 13 January 1938. It starred Lupino Lane
Lupino Lane
Lupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...

 as Bill Snibson and it ran for 1,646 performances despite being bombed out of two theatres. The show was revived in 1952 and again in 1984, when the book was revised by Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...

 and came to include some of Gay's own songs. The latter production ran for eight years, initially at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre (Leicester)
The Haymarket Theatre was a theatre in Leicester, England, based in the Haymarket Shopping Centre on Belgrave Gate in Leicester city centre. The theatre closed at the end of 2006 and has been replaced by the Curve Theatre...

 in Leicester and then at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...

 in London, before going on tour throughout Britain and transferring to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

. The "showstopper" in that work was "The Lambeth Walk
The Lambeth Walk
"The Lambeth Walk" is a song from the 1937 musical Me and My Girl . The song takes its name from a local street Lambeth Walk once notable for its street market and working class culture in Lambeth, an area of London.The tune gave its name to a Cockney dance first made popular in 1937 by Lupino Lane...

" which has the distinction of being the only popular song to be the subject of a leader in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

. In October 1938 one of its leaders read "While dictators rage and statesmen talk, all Europe dances — to 'The Lambeth Walk'."
Gay went on to write songs for revues by The Crazy Gang
The Crazy Gang
The Crazy Gang were a group of British entertainers, formed in the early 1930s. In the mature form the group's six men were Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen, Jimmy Nervo, Teddy Knox, Charlie Naughton and Jimmy Gold...

, and for star artists like Gracie Fields
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields, DBE , was an English-born, later Italian-based actress, singer and comedienne and star of both cinema and music hall.-Early life:...

, Flanagan and Allen
Flanagan and Allen
Flanagan and Allen were a British singing and comedy double act popular during World War II. Its members were Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen...

 and George Formby, as well as penning popular World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 songs such as "Run Rabbit Run
Run Rabbit Run
Run Rabbit Run is a song written by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler. The music was by Noel Gay and the song was originally sung by Flanagan and Allen....

" (with lyrics by Ralph Butler
Ralph Butler
Ralph T. Butler was a British songwriter, responsible for the lyrics of many popular songs of the 1930s and later, mostly with comic or novelty elements.He was active as a songwriter from the late 1920s until the mid-1950s...

). He wrote two songs for the 1938 comedy film Save a Little Sunshine
Save a Little Sunshine
Save a Little Sunshine is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Norman Lee and starring Dave Willis, Patricia Kirkwood and Tommy Trinder. After he is sacked from his job, a man buys a share in a hotel.-Production:...

.

After the war, his musical output diminished and he concentrated more on production, in part because of increasing deafness and also because the fashion for cheerful Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...

-themed songs was on the wane.

He had created Noel Gay Music in 1938 as a business vehicle. It now forms a part of the Noel Gay Organisation which includes divisions for television and theatre and is a significant British showbusiness agency, under the day-to-day control of his family.

Shows

Gay contributed to numerous shows, almost all of them musical comedies or revues. Grove Music Online lists the following, except where the genre is stated as uncertain or as pantomime:
Year Name Comedy/Revue Notes
1926 The Charlot Show of 1926 R
1927 Clowns In Clover R
1931 Hold My Hand C
Folly To Be Wise R included The King's Horses
1932 She Couldn't Say No Uncertain genre
1933 That's A Pretty Thing C Rev. as La-Di-Da-Di-Da, 1943
1935 Jack O'Diamonds C Rev. as Susie, 1942
Love Laughs C
Stop Press R
1936 O-Kay for Sound Book: Bob Weston
R. P. Weston
Robert Patrick Weston was an English songwriter. He was born and died in London. Among other songs, he co-authored , "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm", a macabre little ditty about the ghost of Anne Boleyn haunting the Tower of London, seeking revenge on Henry VIII for having her...

 & Bert Lee
Bert Lee
Bert Lee was an English songwriter. He wrote for music hall and the musical stage, often in partnership with R. P. Weston.Lee was born 11 June 1880 in Ravensthorpe, Yorkshire, England....

; music: Noel Gay, Harris Weston, Michael Carr
Michael Carr (composer)
Michael Carr , real name Maurice Alfred Cohen, was a British light music composer born in Leeds. He is best remembered for the song "South of the Border ", written with Jimmy Kennedy for the 1939 film of the same name.Among Carr's other compositions were The Shadows instrumental hits "Man of...

 & Jimmy Kennedy
Jimmy Kennedy
Jimmy Kennedy OBE was an Irish songwriter, predominantly a lyricist, putting words to existing music such as "Teddy Bears' Picnic" and "My Prayer", or co-writing with the composers Michael Carr, Wilhelm Grosz and Nat Simon amongst others.-Biography:Kennedy was born near Omagh...

1937 Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....

 
C Filmed as The Lambeth Walk, 1939
1938 Wild Oats C
1939 The Little Dog Laughed Uncertain genre
1940 Lights Up R included Let The People Sing, Only A Glass Of Champagne, You've Done Something To My Heart
Present Arms C
1942 Gangway R
1943 The Love Racket C
1944 Meet Me Victoria C
Ring Time C
1946 Sweetheart Mine C
1948 Bob's Your Uncle C
1949 Aladdin Score for pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

)

Songs

Among Noel Gay's songs were the following, sourced from US Library of Congress copyright catalogs and the catalogue of the National Library of Australia
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...

 as indicated.
Year Song From Lyrics Music Lyrics & Music Source
1929 Tondeleyo White Cargo
White Cargo
White Cargo is a film starring Hedy Lamarr and Walter Pidgeon and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Set in 1910, it is based on the 1923 London and Broadway hit play by Leon Gordon, which was in turn adapted from the novel Hell's Playground by Ida Vera Simonton...

 (film - this was the first song to be used in a British talkie)
Stanley Hill (Noel Gay) Noel Gay NLA
1931 Girl of a Million Dreams Jos. Geo. Gilbert Noel Gay LCC 1931
Mrs Elizabeth Brown Jos. Geo. Gilbert Noel Gay LCC 1931
The King's Horses and The King's Men Noel Gay & Harry Graham
Harry Graham (poet)
Jocelyn Henry Clive 'Harry' Graham was an English writer. He was a successful journalist and later, after distinguished military service, a leading lyricist for operettas and musical comedies, but he is now best remembered as a writer of humorous verse in the tradition of grotesquerie and black...

 
LCC 1931
Laughing At The Rain Jos. Geo. Gilbert Noel Gay LCC 1931
Goddess of the Moon The Chinese Bungalow Noel Gay LCC 1931
I Want The World To Know That I Belong To You On With The Show Jos. Geo. Gilbert Noel Gay LCC 1931
The Pied Piper of Hamelin Hold My Hand Desmond Carter
Desmond Carter
Herbert Desmond Carter was a British lyricist who worked with George and Ira Gershwin, Ivor Novello, and others, and also wrote one of the first English language versions of the notorious "suicide song", "Gloomy Sunday"....

 & Noel Gay
Noel Gay LCC 1932; NLA
Hold My Hand Hold My Hand Harry Graham Maurice Elwin & Noel Gay LCC 1932
Dearest, It's You Jos. Geo. Gilbert / Benny Davis
Benny Davis
Benny Davis was a vaudeville performer and writer of popular songs. He composed the classic 1926 standard "Baby Face" with Harry Akst.-Life and career:...

 
Noel Gay LCC 1932
Nobody's Baby Is Somebody's Baby Now Gus Kahn
Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.-Biography:Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family emigrated from there to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890...

 
Noel Gay LCC 1932
Ali Baba's Camel Noel Gay NLA
1932 Land of Love and Laughter Archie Gottler
Archie Gottler
Archie Gottler was an American composer, screenwriter, actor and film director. Gottler is known for being the director of the 1934 film "Woman Haters", the first of a series of 190 Three Stooges comedy shorts for Columbia Pictures.-External links:...

 
Noel Gay LCC 1932
Turn On The Music Noel Gay & Desmond Carter Noel Gay LCC 1932
Thou Shalt Not Archie Gottler Noel Gay LCC 1932
All For The Love of A Lady Archie Gottler / J P Long Noel Gay LCC 1932
The Sun Has Got His Hat On
The Sun Has Got His Hat On
The Sun Has Got His Hat On is one of the main songs in the musical Me and My Girl. It was written by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler, and recorded in 1932 by Ambrose and his Orchestra, with vocals by Sam Browne....

 
Ralph Butler
Ralph Butler
Ralph T. Butler was a British songwriter, responsible for the lyrics of many popular songs of the 1930s and later, mostly with comic or novelty elements.He was active as a songwriter from the late 1920s until the mid-1950s...

 & Noel Gay
LCC 1932
Round The Marble Arch Ralph Butler & Noel Gay LCC 1932
Lovely Little Silhouette Archie Gottler Noel Gay LCC 1932
I Don't Want To Go To Bed Stanley Lupino
Stanley Lupino
Stanley Lupino was an English actor, dancer, singer, librettist, director and short story writer.-Early career:Lupino began his career as an acrobat and made his stage debut in 1913 and first became known as a music hall performer and played in pantomimes at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane...

 
Noel Gay NLA
I've Found The Right Girl / Oh What A Girl Stanley Lupino & Noel Gay NLA
1933 La-di-da-di-da That's A Pretty Thing Desmond Carter Noel Gay LCC 1934
I'm Hitching My Wagon To You That's A Pretty Thing Desmond Carter Noel Gay LCC 1934
I Took My Harp To A Party Desmond Carter Noel Gay LCC 1934
Why Can't We You Made Me Love You Clifford Grey
Clifford Grey
Clifford Grey was an English songwriter, actor, librettist and Olympic medalist. His birth name was Percival Davis, and he was also known as Clifford Gray, Tippi Gray, Tippi Grey, Tippy Gray and Tippy Grey.As a writer, Grey contributed prolifically to West End and Broadway shows, as librettist and...

 
Noel Gay LCC 1934
The Song You Gave To Me Clifford Grey & Noel Gay Noel Gay NLA
Letting In The Sunshine Noel Gay NLA
One Little Kiss From You Clifford Grey Noel Gay NLA
There's Something About A Soldier Soldiers of the King (film) Noel Gay NLA
The Moment I Saw You Soldiers of the King (film) Clifford Grey Noel Gay NLA
1934 Fit For Anything Desmond Carter Noel Gay LCC 1934
Happy Happy (film) Stanley Lupino & Noel Gay LCC 1934
Who's Been Polishing The Sun? The Camels Are Coming (film) Noel Gay NLA
I'll Pray For You Roy King & Stanley Hill (Noel Gay) Jos. Geo. Gilbert & Noel Gay NLA
1935 Time Love Laughs! Desmond Carter Noel Gay NLA
All For A Shilling A Day Where's My Man? Clifford Grey & Noel Gay Noel Gay NLA
1936 The Fleet's In Port Again O-Kay For Sound (and as film, 1937) Noel Gay NLA
Let's Have A Tiddly At The Milk Bar Noel Gay NLA
1937 Red, White and Blue Noel Gay NLA
Lambeth Walk
Lambeth Walk
Lambeth Walk is a street in Lambeth, London, England, off Lambeth Road. It was an old street market and housing area.After some bomb damage during the Blitz in World War II on September 18, 1940, the area became rather run down and was subsequently rebuilt....

 
Douglas Furber
Douglas Furber
Douglas Furber was a British lyricist and playwright.Furber is best known for the lyrics to the 1937 song The Lambeth Walk and the libretto to the musical Me and My Girl, composed by Noel Gay, from which it came. This show made broadcasting history when in 1939 it became the first full length...

 
Noel Gay NLA
Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....

 
Douglas Furber Noel Gay NLA
Leaning On A Lamp-post Noel Gay NLA
Won't You Buy My Pretty Flowers Jack Meskill & Noel Gay Noel Gay NLA
1938 Love Makes The World Go Round These Foolish Things Stanley Hill (Noel Gay) NLA
1939 Did You Go Down Lambeth Way? Noel Gay NLA
You've Done Something To My Heart Lights Up Frank Eyton
Frank Eyton
Frank Eyton was an English popular music lyricist best known for co-writing the lyrics of Johnny Green's "Body and Soul" with Edward Heyman and Robert Sour....

 & Ian Grant
Noel Gay NLA
Run, Rabbit, Run
Run Rabbit Run
Run Rabbit Run is a song written by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler. The music was by Noel Gay and the song was originally sung by Flanagan and Allen....

 
The Little Dog Laughed Ralph Butler & Noel Gay Noel Gay NLA
The Girl Who Loves A Soldier Ralph Butler & Noel Gay Noel Gay NLA
Let The People Sing Frank Eyton & Ian Grant Noel Gay NLA
Birthday Of The Little Princess Noel Gay NLA
The Moon Remembered But You Forgot Frank Eyton & Noel Gay NLA
Fare Thee Well Jimmy Campbell, Frank Eyton & Noel Gay NLA
1940 All Over The Place Sailors Three (film) Frank Eyton & Noel Gay Noel Gay NLA
Oh What A Wonderful Night We've Had Tonight Ralph Butler & Noel Gay Noel Gay NLA
Oh! Buddy, I'm In Love Ralph Butler & Noel Gay Noel Gay NLA
Whose Little What's-it Are You? Frank Eyton & Noel Gay NLA
Moonlight Avenue Jos. Geo. Gilbert, Jimmy Campbell & Noel Gay NLA
1941 Come Happy Day Bill Hutter & Noel Gay NLA
Mr Brown Of London Town Reginald Arkell
Reginald Arkell
Reginald Arkell was a British script writer and comic novelist who wrote many musical plays for the London theatre. The most popular of those was an adaptation of the spoof history book 1066 and All That: 1066—and all that: A Musical Comedy based on that Memorable History by Sellar and Yeatman...

 & Noel Gay
NLA
Hey! Little Hen Ralph Butler & Noel Gay NLA
She's In Love With A Soldier David Heneker
David Heneker
David Heneker was a writer and composer of British popular music and musicals, best known for creating the music and lyrics for Half a Sixpence.-Life and career:...

 & Noel Gay
NLA
I'd Never Fall In Love Again Ralph Butler & Noel Gay NLA
Oh! How He Misses His Missus (Since He Became A Military Man) Ralph Butler & Noel Gay NLA
He Wants To Be A Pilot Muriel Watson, Jack Denby & Noel Gay NLA
Who Are You A-Shovin' Of? Raymond Moore & Noel Gay NLA
1942 The First Waltz Ralph Butler & Noel Gay NLA
1943 Happy Days, Happy Months, Happy Years Frank Eyton & Noel Gay NLA
Sitting On A Cloud Ralph Butler & Noel Gay NLA
I'm Mad At Myself Joe Lubin & Noel Gay NLA
Why Say Goodbye Tommy Angel, Joyce Cochrane & Noel Gay NLA
1944 We Don't Know Where We're Going
We Don't Know Where We're Going (1944 song)
"We Don't Know Where We're Going " is a popular song written by British composer Noel Gay and lyricist Ralph Butler, and published in 1944....

 
Ralph Butler & Noel Gay NLA
1945 The Too-rie On His Bonnet George Brown Noel Gay NLA
1946 When Alice Blue Gown Met Little Boy Blue Arnold, Ralph Butler & Simpson Noel Gay NLA
1949 I'll Always Love You Frank Eyton & Noel Gay Noel Gay NLA
1950 My Thanks To You Norman Newell
Norman Newell
Norman Newell, OBE was born in Plaistow, Essex , and was a successful British record producer in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as co-writer of many notable songs...

 
Noel Gay NLA


Some of his songs featured in the film Overlord
Overlord (film)
Overlord is a 1975 black-and-white film written and directed by Stuart Cooper. Set around the D-Day invasion , Overlord is a war film about a young soldier's meditations on being part of the war machinery, and his premonitions of death...

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