John P. Long


Writer of I Can’t Do My Belly Bottom Button Up (1916) and What D’Yer Think Of That (1922), John P. Long also contributed the great hit Oh! It’s A Lovely War (with Maurice Scott, 1917). He also wrote songs for both George Formby Sr. (I Had My Hands In My Pocket — with Paul Pelham, 1915) and Jr. (Like The Big Pots Do — 1929). For George Robey, he wrote It’s The First Time I’ve Ever Done That (with Robey or possibly Henry E. Pether — sources differ) and Daisy Dillwater (with Henry E. Pether), while Albert Whelan sang his Give It A Smile (with Charles Wilmott, ca. 1923). He continued to write into the 1940s, and had a hit with with Sing, Everybody, Sing in 1942.

With Fred Godfrey and A.J. Mills, Long wrote Spring-Time Might Have Been Ring-Time (1915).