SONGS THAT BOOMED

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 196, 16 May 1936, Page 24

SONGS THAT BOOMED

Writer of- Hits Interviewed

The composer who has written 87 verses to the tune of “You Can’t Do That There ’Ere,” and is now looking for an SSth, told the “Sunday Chronicle” the secrets of songs that have swept Britain.

He is Mr. Raymond Wallace, one of the world’s best-known song-writers, and when his music goes round and round, it turns out cash for him. Mr. Wallace disclosed that he had written smashhit songs while shaving, composed in the bath, thought out a song winner on the way to -the office, and written 87 verses of “You Can’t Do That There ’Ere.”

“That may not be the way Wagner and Mozart composed,” he said, ‘‘but it is evidently a good method for my sort of songs, because my song ‘l’m One of the Nuts of Barcelona’ sold 890,000 copies in Britain alone. “Four million copies of my ‘Apple Blossom Time in Normandy’ were sold in America.”

Mr. Wallace explained how a popular song is composed.

“First,” he said, “I get the title. Oc-. casionally it comes through inspiration. But, as a rule, it is hard work. “Sometimes it takes three weeks. “Then comes the tune.

“The hardest part about writing a hew tune is shutting the old familiar tunes out of one’s head. “Tunes come to me in all sorts of queer places. I have thought of a melody when I was shaving, in my ba th, in a tube train.

"One of my best songs was telephoned home.” Mr. Wallace likes writing the words best of all.

“A lot of my songs were commissioned by famous customers,” Mr. Wallace continued. “Specially written for stars like Marie Lloyd, Florrie Ford, Cicely Courtneidge, Ella Shields, Ella Retford, Clarice Mayne, Ada Reeve, Vesta Tilley, Jack Pleasants, and G. S. Melvin. “An important market for me nowadays is the dance band world. “Comedy numbers with patter are, of course, very popular, and I supply a lot of this material to band leaders like Jack Payne, Debroy Somers, ami Henry Hall. “I have co-operated with Jack Payne many times. The most notable occasion w T as when we produced that song ‘You Can’t Do That There ’Ere.’ “I’ve already written 87 verses for it; and I’m not finished yet.” Success in the song writing business brings mixed blessings. The more popular a song becomes the more it is broadcast—and the shorter its life.

“The average life of a popular song is about 13 weeks,” said Mr. Wallace.

“At the peak of that period a successful song will sell 40,000 copies a week.

“In my ‘Barcelona’ days, a popular song might reach a million sales in Britain, but the top nowadays is about 250,000.”