Don’t think I was ever on “The Bill”, when you have to report to the Head Master for a misdemeanour. Today there are three more Bills – eyes down, get ready to tick them off.
In Darlinghurst in 1993 Bill Granger opened a small cafe-cum-restaurant. It was a great success and Bill Granger has become famous for his cookbooks and TV shows in Australia. His chain of restaurants has become international with branches in London, Honolulu, Tokyo and Seoul. You may have seen some branches? “Oh no you haven’t”, as it’s panto time. Bill’s outlets are branded Granger & Co in the UK. His latest book is Australian Food and one reader will receive a copy today because we had lunch at Bill’s in Lewes in August this year; she is a proficient cook and may long for a taste of her homeland. You can’t beat a koala kebab. Of course I thought it was Bill Granger’s but …
Bill’s in Lewes is Bill Collison’s first restaurant, opened in 2001. He’d taken over his father’s market garden and that led to opening a shop and cafe. Now, supported by the omnipresent Richard Caring, there’s probably a branch of Bill’s near you.
The last Bill is the oldest. PG Wodehouse wrote Bill for Oh Lady! Lady!!, a musical he wrote with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern in 1917. Counter-intuitively it is not one of Plum’s jolliest lyrics, to the extent that it was pulled from the show. Not wanting to waste something good, he re-used it in Show Boat in 1927; a more serious musical. It was a success at the time but mostly disappeared until Wodehouse’s step-great granddaughter, Lara Cazalet, rescued it and regularly performs it, often at PG Wodehouse Sociey dinners, to much acclaim.
(If you will indulge me in some music nerdery in the comments section . . . )
Not to take anything away from Lara Cazalet, but it is a bit surprising on this side of the Atlantic to read that “Bill” mostly disappeared. A quick search of the songs on my phone turns up several versions by artists ranging from Anna Moffo, to Sarah Walker, to Dinahs Shore and Washington, and of course Lena Horne, all “ripped” from CD’s. (There are a few more versions not ripped but still on CD’s somewhere downstairs, including those by Marni Nixon, of film dubbing fame, Helen Forrest, and Helen Morgan, who sang it originally.)
The jazz versions benefited greatly from the revival of classic “songbooks” when older records were re-issued as CD’s in the 80’s and ’90’s, and plush, Nelson Riddle-style arrangements gained new audiences. More recently, a recording by Broadway star Audra MacDonald has had some success.
As streaming is everything these days (so we are told), it is reassuring to see that Spotify offers more than 25 versions of “Bill” — though it appears they were not willing to pay for the rights to some of the better ones, as is sadly typical of streaming services. All of which is to say that it can be found, if someone knows to look for it.
Happily, you have brought “Bill” to the attention of any readers of your blog who didn’t already know the song and its illustrious history, and they can have the pleasure of (re)discovery of Plum’s lyrics and Kern’s music. Thank you for the reminder: I spent a good bit of my time cooking for Thanksgiving yesterday listening to it, along with a lot of other lovely Kern melodies.
Nerdery is encouraged here. I did not know that the Bill flame had been kept alive your side of the pond. When your distinguished soprano Sylvia McNair sang a selection of Plum’s lyrics at the Wigmore Hall she invited Lara Cazalet to sing Bill. You should join the PG Wodehouse Society (UK) hoping to hear it sung by Lara at the next society dinner in the Fall next year.