Will Fyffe (comedian) - I Belong to Glasgow (Fyffe) (1929)

Will Fyffe sings 'I Belong to Glasgow,' with orchestra conducted by Charles Prentice, recorded on 17 October 1929.
From Wikipedia: Will Fyffe, CBE (16 February 1885 - 14 December 1947) was a music hall and performing artist from Scotland, a star of the 1930s and 1940s, on stage and screen...
Will Fyffe was born, on 16 February 1885, in a tenement at 36 Broughty Ferry Road, Dundee, the eldest child of John Fyffe (1864-1928), a ship's carpenter, and a music teacher, Janet Rhynd Cunningham (1858-1949).
His father was interested in theatrical entertainment and operated a Penny Geggy, in which the young Will gained valuable experience as a character actor, as he travelled around the Lowlands of Scotland.
In his twenties, Fyffe joined Will Haggar Junior's Castle Theatre company, touring the South Wales Valleys from its base in Abergavenny. Fyffe and his wife feature in an advert for the Castle Theatre in the Portable Times in 1911.
Fyffe's screen debut was in 1914 when William Haggar, Will Junior's father and a pioneer silent film producer, made an epic 50-minute version of the classic Welsh Tale, The Maid of Cefn Ydfa, which was first screened in Aberdare in December of that year. Reviewed in The South Wales Echo in 1938, the film disappeared, but was rediscovered in 1984 in a family cupboard and conserved: 38 minutes survives, in the Welsh Film Archive in Aberystwyth. In the film, Fyffe plays Lewis Bach, the loyal servant of the maid. He appealed against conscription in 1918 on grounds of his occupation, serious hardship and ill health.
As a character actor, he was much in demand in Hollywood and Britain, starring and co-starring in dozens of productions, with the likes of Finlay Currie, Patricia Roc, John Laurie, Duncan MacRae, John Gielgud, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Margaret Lockwood and Charles Hawtrey. His last film was The Brothers, which was released shortly after his death. In Owd Bob, (To The Victor in America), Fyffe plays the 'likeable old curmudgeon', McAdam,. The New York Times describes Fyffe's performance as fitting 'snugly into the mental dossier we have been compiling under the heading, great performances.'
Although he became well known as a talented actor for the breadth of his on-screen characterisations, Fyffe was also a successful music hall artist (singer-songwriter and comedian), creating a succession of comic characters, whose story he narrated with his unique form of delivery - Fyffe would start his song, pausing in the middle to give a monologue with further detail of the song's storyline, before resuming the song where he left off... Fyffe had the ability to create a character and then seem to actually be that character.
In 1937, Fyffe appeared in the Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium, one of numerous appearances, and became regarded as Queen Elizabeth`s favourite entertainer...
For a period, Fyffe developed a successful stage partnership with Harry Gordon, playing opposite him in pantomime for many years, most notably at the famed Alhambra Theatre Glasgow.
In 1939 Fyffe was the ninth most popular British star at the box office. He was appointed a CBE in 1942.
It was when Fyffe wrote and recorded the song 'I Belong to Glasgow' that he became a worldwide star. According to Albert Mackie's The Scotch Comedians (1973), Fyffe found the inspiration for the song from a drunk he met at Glasgow Central Station. The drunk was 'genial and demonstrative' and 'laying off about Karl Marx and John Barleycorn with equal enthusiasm.' Fyffe asked him: 'Do you belong to Glasgow?' and the man replied: 'At the moment, at the moment, Glasgow belongs to me.'
He was so popular that the Empire Theatre in Glasgow ran a 'Will Fyffe' competition, with dozens of entrants singing 'I Belong to Glasgow.' Heavily disguised as himself, Fyffe entered the competition for a bet, but he could only win second prize. According to theatre manager and historian, W. J. MacQueen-Pope: 'Will Fyffe was a man of great honesty and integrity,' and this comes across in his songs when heard today.
It was by falling from a hotel room window that Fyffe met his death. After an operation on his right ear in 1947, Fyffe went to recuperate at his own hotel in St Andrews. One night, he fell from the window of his suite and was taken to the local cottage hospital, where he later died.
Fyffe was buried in his adopted home city of Glasgow, at Lambhill Cemetery, three days later.
Fyffe was survived by a son, Will Fyffe Jr. (1927-2008), a musical director who wrote a musical about his father's life, and a daughter, Eileen.

[@paulmolloy6818]

a magic wee song

[@nadiamurchie1949]

i was born 82 i heard this in primary school and the only one who remembers it. sang it in glasgow winter there at the old clock december 2023. didnt post it on social media due to certain family members demonizing me for leaving my home to do anything other than visit them.. im sure fyffe was aberdonian , i need to go google again. i will sing this forever and enjoy glasgow my home in secret now

[@nadiamurchie1949]

and i will forever sing the song of the clyde

[@alexcampbell3032]

Thats a long time. ​@@nadiamurchie1949

[@alanoneill3065]

Heres tae Will.... His singer-songwriter skills are still well-known today, particularly his composition "I Belong to Glasgow".[1] This song has been covered by Danny Kaye, Eartha Kitt, Gracie Fields and Kirk Douglas: "If your money, you spend, You've nothing to lend, Isn't that all the better for you" As a result of this song, Fyffe became forever associated with Glasgow, but he was born 70 mile away Wiki

[@nadiamurchie1949]

will fyffe and harry lauder are forgotten epics now, people sing their songs still here in scotland but most folk have no idea where they came from or even bother to google the origin. im sure one of them or both went platinum, i didnt google to educate myself there.

[@nadiamurchie1949]

harry lauder was the first platinum artist in scotland, will fyffe had a strange end deemed an 'accident'

[@alfredpetrie7920]

He was a Dundonian like me

[@saltburner2]

This is one of the last 78s to be deleted in the UK - it was still available in the mid 50s.

[@vintagesounds3878]

It says a lot for the popularity of this recording that it had such a long catalogue life.

[@fontybits]

I was actually given a an old wind-up gramophone player and a pile of 78's by my dad's friend who was the head man at the Paisley Cleansing Department yard, back in the late 50's. I was 9. He had a brand new Citroën DS 19, and drove us home. Among the records was I Belong To Glasgow, and on the 'B' side was I'm 94 today.

[@Lily-ky8ew]

우리나라 코메디언들도 대부분 다방면으로 예술적 재능이 뛰어난데 예전에도 그랬나봐요. 노래, 연기, 춤, 말솜씨도 좋으며 머리도 좋더라구요.