All the way back fifty years, and November 1972 saw this single top the charts.
Title: “Mouldy Old Dough”
Artist: Lieutenant Pigeon
Nationality: English
Genre: Pub Rock
Written by: Nigel Fletcher, Rob Woodward
Original release date: February 1972
Progress to the top: Although a complete flop on its initial release, second time round was the charm and it entered the chart at 38 on September 16, moving into the top 20 the next week and then to the number 3 and then 2 spot, until the next week it reached the top and remained there for four weeks.
Weeks spent at number one: 4
From the album: Mouldy Old Music
What do I know about this artist? Nothing
What do I think of this single? One of the old quirks of the seventies, an instrumental single with one or two sung lines; a real oddity but somehow catchy.
What have I learned about this single? That one of the band members’ mothers played the piano on it, that it was only successful after flopping by way of a Belgian TV show, whose popularity pushed the song into the Belgian charts and had the UK label give it another go, whereupon it raced to number one. It says the title refers to a jazz phrase “vo-de-o-do”, though it does not say what this means.
My rating: A