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Letter dated 18 April 1911 from
Fred Godfrey assigning all the rights to Let’s All Go Mad to Billy Williams. Fred even goes so far as to state that the song is to be Billy’s “sole & absolute property,” for which Fred got an unusually generous £5. |
Listen
to a
1912
recording
by Billy Williams
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Fred Godfrey & Billy Williams, 1911; manuscripts of two drafts of
lyrics in author’s collection.
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A 1912 London newspaper review of Billy Williams described his
stage act in the following glowing terms:
Billy Williams is the spell-binder of the variety stage at the present
moment. He of the velvet suit and curly hair is not satisfied with impressing
his audience in a general sort of way, but holds it in his grip and
never lets go. The boundless vivacity of the man and his infectious
gaiety are the principal secrets of his popularity....[He] is the very
personification of energy. He is not still for two moments together;
when not walking with an imaginary partner he is walking up and down
the stage as if he were bent on lowering somebody’s record....Unlike
many light comedians, Billy...can sing, and he has a knack of getting
hold of songs that are worth singing. At the Holborn Empire this week,
he featured with triumphant success a rollicking song, which is strongly
reminiscent of a recent favourite, “Let’s All Go Mad.”
The song suited the comedian’s style like a glove, and when he
appealed to the audience to join in the chorus — the appeal, by
the way, was quite superfluous — every man, woman, and child in
the house — well, simply went mad.1
Recordings
Billy Williams recorded at least eight versions of this hit song:
12 August 1911 for Zonophone, ca. August 1911 for Columbia,
ca. August 1911 for Homophon, ca. August 1911 for Jumbo,
ca. September 1911 for Edison Amberol, ca. September-October 1911 for
Pathé, ca. December 1911 for Beka Grand, and 12 January 1912
for Favorite. Reissues appeared on several other labels.2
Jumbo Military Band, in “Jumbo Band Medley 2” (Jumbo 617, 1912)
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Notes
1 News of the World,
7 April 1912.
2 For comprehensive discographies of recordings by Billy Williams, see Brian Rust, British Music Hall on Record (Harrow, UK:
Gramophone, 1979); and Frank Andrews and Ernie Bayly, Billy Williams’ Records: A Study in Discography (Bournemouth, UK:
Talking Machine Review, 1982).
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