Max Bygraves DECIMALISATION

Cheesy Max Bygraves single from 1970

[@mwe152]

Is this the first rap record? ...Fast forward to 1min 10s!

[@briansinger5258]

Well, that actually makes sense. I’m finally going to switch to the new system.

[@jmharrison51]

I hadn't realised until now that Max Bygraves was the UK's first rapper. For all those people who think that the late 60's - early 70's were the golden age of British rock/pop, listen to shit like this and think again - there was actually quite a lot of it about. But don't think I'm ungrateful for the post - it's a little bit of history and deserves to be preserved. Cheers.

[@robhingston]

Yeah, I was just thinking that it sounds like rap halfway through

[@andypandy4078]

this used to be the theme tune to the short decimilisation programmes put on around the time o the early evening news time when new money was coming in . I was about 2 months away rom turning 6 but i;ve always remembered this tune.

[@CathyWeasly]

Me too - that was how I ended up here - I wanted to hear it again!

[@merseydave1]

Me too ... I was six in April 1971, I can even remember our time change along with mainland Europe ... darkness in the winter mornings up 9am and the light nights up to 11pm in the summer!

[@angelacooper2661]

I was ten months old in April 1971, still in the pram and too young to understand or remember that period!

[@glenpierce777]

What a treat on a Monday morning in Feb 2021.

[@NancyBoi1984]

Glad I'm not the only person listening today

[@ObsessedCollector]

Song is addicting..

[@Gmackematix]

What was on the B Side? You Need Paaands or Pence Ain't What They Used To Be?

[@deegx7916]

They play this on the Radcliffe and Maconie show, on 6 Music, a heck of a lot.

[@annoldham3018]

This is great. It has a feeling of Congratulations by Cliff Richard. I don't remember the old coins, except the sixpence which was kept for a while. It sounds very complicated!🥰

[@revinhatol]

1971

[@bootedlad]

At last! Thanks for posting this, been searching for it for months and could not find it anywhere!

[@justmoritz]

It's a bop!

[@AnElephantsChild]

I remember him singing this surrounded by girls dressed in coins. Thanks for sharing this x x (I still want the old money back though !)

[@garychapman4294]

Decimal Dollies 🤣

[@MrBranFlake]

The old money was a bit more sophisticated, that’s for sure

[@MsOnyx123]

Endeavour brought me here

[@terrypussypower]

So old Max was the UK's first rapper! Check it out from 1:10!

[@TopOfThePopsRedubbed]

Could have sworn it went "Decimalisation, it's sweeping the naaaatiooooon..." Must have dreamt it. Or should I say, had a nightmare.

[@sirknight1399]

Happy 50th birthday decimal currency!

[@angelacooper2661]

Nearly as old as me, because I was eight months old when decimalisation took place!

[@sirknight1399]

@@angelacooper2661 Decimalisation was 11 weeks old when I was born!

[@russellwhite1581]

I like old Max, but this record is pure propaganda to a Eurovision type tune.

[@davenorman8632]

Cor, I'd lost hope of hearing this again! I hadn't heard it since 1991, when the Beeb had a retrospective on Radio (probably) 2.

[@FentonRhoades]

I'm sorry to read that. I haven't heard this record since 1971 and, personally, I was feeling myself lucky. Until today, that is...

[@Je_QzcY3mN0]

Sounds like a sitcom opening song

[@arfareandaneswara3286]

We'll move towards decimalisation, decimalisation! Soon it's gonna be time to change the money round. 'Cause we've got decimalisation, decimalisation! There's a hundred new pennies now for every pound. Five new pennies are like a shilling, and ten new pence is a two bob bit A fifty pence piece hasn't got a milling, it's seven-sided and a half a quid With a half and a one and two new pence, decimal shopping will commence Then we'll have decimalisation, decimalisation! Soon it's gonna be time to change the money round. 'Cause we've got decimalisation, decimalisation! There's a hundred new pennies now for every pound. Gone are the days when twelve old pence added up to make a shilling, not much sense. The half crown too has gone for good, a coin that foreigners never understood. Now some people who were feeling very bright have put their heads together just to make things right. They have made it easy for every citizen, 'cause all we have to do is count from one to ten! These scales say that I weigh 72 kilograms; what's that in old money?

[@pjcnet]

I don't remember as I was born in September 1969 and was obviously too young, but history such as this intrigues me, I'm surprised they even used Max Bygraves in this way help get the message across. The UK was well behind in many ways as the USA was decimalised for many years, I'm surprised this didn't happen in the UK much earlier with suggestions for the change over as early as the previous century.

[@angelacooper2661]

You are therefore nine months older than me, as I was just eight months old when decimalisation took place. The changeover never affected me!

[@1948DESMOND]

i remember it well!! that year, 1971, when SOUTHERN ireland was used a a guinea pig, we went decimilal in, i think february, and the u.k. followed suit some months later. the transition was painless. my dad had did in january of that year and my mom noticed how he had not lived to see decimaliation. it mad her sad so i took her to see LOVE STORY at the ambassador cinema in dublin city .... and that made her weep, too. god, that movie was the most hyped movie of that year. and what a load of shite it was. it never didlive up the , say, the standard of GONE WITH THE WIND. even the Sound of mucus was better. as for Grease, later on in the seventies , don't mention it to me.!! aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh, memories !

[@monarchist1838]

Britain and Ireland went decimal on the same day. Ireland decided to do it as Britain decided to go decimal

[@angelacooper2661]

I was too young to understand or remember decimalisation - just an eight month old baby in the pram at the time. So the changeover didn't affect me. When this was recorded I was being born!

[@pinedelgado4743]

This would have made a GREAT Petula Clark song!! :) :)

[@RaymondHng]

A portion of it has the same melody as her single "My Love".

[@rolandpratt403]

A touch of the Congratulations as well!

[@ObsessedCollector]

Good lord, you're right! Def has that "Don't sleep in the Subway" feel to it.

[@11carbuff19572011]

Yeah, deffo. Pet was apparently on the same label as Max then, Pye Popular. Max had been with Pye since 1967, charting with his trademark Singalongamax series of albums from 1972-78.

[@MisterPolitical1]

In Australia on 14/2/1966 there's a song about decimalisation called in come the dollars in comes the cents.

[@momoqin9296]

Can you give me a video link to it? I can’t find it on KZbin.

[@MisterPolitical1]

@@momoqin9296 kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4u3loqCdpZ_d9U

[@momoqin9296]

@@MisterPolitical1 thanks bro!

[@thecalvin2481]

That Pedal Show brought me here.

[@jrgboy]

I forgot about it & was filling my car with petrol on the day the money changed & wondered what was going on for a few seconds...

[@preschoolguy2010]

when did the US and Canada go Decimal?

[@laelnewton6624]

the US officially established its currency in 1792 and was decimal from the beginning. Canada introduced its decimal coinage in 1858, after some deliberation on whether to go decimal or sterling. [source - wikipedia]

[@michaelsandford1015]

I have this record in mint conistion

[@michaelsandford1015]

I have the same record in mint comdision(spelt wrong)but being a max bygraves record it will not be worfe any thing sorry for the smelling/spelling.

[@deepindercheema4917]

Do you have records in any other flavours?

[@EmmsterGD]

Replying to yourself I see

[@hebneh]

How was this song used? I mean, was it only heard as a commercial?

[@barbarakirk1451]

It was played on the radio, but not as a commercial. The Scaffold did music for Decimal Five, which was a series of short public information films about decimalization shown before the BBC news on a weekday.

[@FentonRhoades]

Yeah, Barbara calls it correct. Used to get a lot of daytime air play on Radio 2, mornings, lunchtime and early afternoon - The Jimmy Young Show, Pete Murry, etc. Here we are _centuries_ later and the damn thing's _still_ in my head! They say the past is another country. Actually no, it's this god-awful song no longer serving any sane utility or purpose. Yet still, you can't get shot of it....

[@BBC600]

Fenton Rhoades *decades a century is 100 years

[@andypandy4078]

i remember it on the decimilisation programmes in the early evening on telly.

[@MonaichFother]

BBC600 I think you might be right there. I just found a Squezy washing up bottle at the beach marked 6d off! s7.postimg.org/drn2dx1ej/IMAG0055.jpg

[@user-zo9xo6bc6c]

Dumbing down ? Maybe so. I remember as a teacher I had to teach primary school children to add, subtract, even multiply not just £sd but also Yards feet and inches, gallons quarts and pints, also Stones pounds and ounces. Children had to learn all the different bases to work in, not just plain base 10 as today.

[@WelcomeToDavidsWorld]

Unfortunately there's still hours , minutes, and seconds

[@JulianHBurchill]

So we should have stuck with an extremely silly monetary system just because it teaches mathematics?

[@aycc-nbh7289]

The same goes in the US. We adopted decimal currency as early as 1792, but our schoolchildren have to grow up learning both the measurement systems you mentioned and the metric system.

[@john111257]

Shocking era, ripped off since

[@NickFlack]

Lyric PLZ

[@1harryrobert]

Born in1963 I remember old money. Bring it back (240 goes on a one arm bandit for a quid)

[@rolandpratt403]

Don't remember this!

[@WedgePee]

It didn’t make the charts. The vast majority of records put out each year tanked.

[@11carbuff19572011]

Yeah, exactly. Thousands of records wasted by radio stations all

[@stedav100]

not bad considering we lost 140p out a pound, and as for the foreigners not knowing what a half crown is, hard luck!

[@spib65]

wow! truly awful record

[@herbertvonzinderneuf8547]

Scaffold did a few more better ones later on.

[@annoldham3018]

How can you knock Max?🤣

[@terrypussypower]

I remember finding a "ten bob note" (actually 50p!) as a kid, it looked just like a ten pound note today, and probably had a lot more spending power! That kept me going in sweets for months!