Most people will have heard the lyrics, "Mud, mud, glorious mud!" at some point, as it's such a fun chorus that seems to have been around forever. Popularly nicknamed "The Mud Song", its real title is The Hippopotamus Song.

Written in the 1950s by the comedy duo Flanders and Swann, who had been working together since their school days in the 1930s, The Hippopotamus Song is probably the best-known of all their hits. It was the first in a series of animal novelty songs including The Gnu, The Rhinoceros and The Sloth.

Over the years, it has been translated into around 20 different languages and has been much parodied in modern times, including when it was used for a Walker's Crisps advertising campaign, fronted by footballer-turned-pundit Gary Lineker.

Flanders and Swann

Michael Flanders and Donald Swann were singers and songwriters who first performed together in a school play in 1939. Flanders was born in March 1922 in Hampstead, London. He came from a theatrical background, as his father Percy was an actor and cinema manager and his mother Laura was a violinist.

In 1936, he became a pupil at Westminster School, where his contemporaries included actor Peter Ustinov, film director Peter Brook and politician Tony Benn. Swann was born in Llanelli, Wales, in September 1923. His father Herbert was a doctor and his mother Naguimé a nurse.

Swann also attended Westminster School, where he met Flanders. After their first performance together in 1939, they staged a successful revue, called Go To It, in July and August 1940, just before leaving school. Then, they went their separate ways.

During the Second World War, Flanders joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and Swann served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit in Egypt, Greece and Palestine. Flanders contracted polio in 1943 and used a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He became a radio broadcaster after the war. Swann returned to his education, attending Oxford University to read Russian and Modern Greek.

In 1948, the two former school friends met again by chance and decided to rekindle the theatrical partnership that had begun at Westminster School.

Comedy partnership

As a double act, Flanders and Swann were a huge success. They began writing songs and light opera, with Swann composing the music and Flanders providing the lyrics. They also began performing their own material in live shows, including their successful two-man revue, At the Drop of a Hat, in the 1950s.

Flanders sang their songs, interspersed with comedy monologues, while Swann played an accompaniment on the piano. Both men remained seated throughout the show, as Flanders was in his wheelchair and Swann sat at the piano.

After the success of At the Drop of a Hat, they toured the world with their follow-up show, At The Drop Of Another Hat. They remained prolific songwriters, as well as touring live almost constantly. In their last 11 years as a duo, they gave almost 2,000 live shows, before dissolving the partnership in 1967.

The Hippopotamus Song

They wrote The Hippopotamus Song in the late 1950s, when their popularity was at its peak. In his memoirs, Swann said their most famous song had been Flanders' idea.

This was a slight source of irritation to Swann, who liked to write all the music, but he realised Flanders had come up with a massive hit. He wrote the chorus first, starting with the well-known line, "Mud, mud, glorious mud!"

He based the style of the song on "Beer, beer, glorious beer!" - an old music hall song by Will Godwin and Steve Leggett. Flanders and Swann played their unfinished version of the song to entertainer and opera singer Ian Wallace, who wanted them to write something for him.

They wrote the lyrics for the verses with Wallace in mind and then Swann added the music. It was an instant success, published immediately by Chappell Music. It launched Flanders and Swann's career as song publishers and paved the way for their series of comic musical numbers about animals.

The Hippopotamus Song's plot was simple: a male hippo was wooing his sweetheart on the banks of the river and invited her to join him. The chorus was the amorous male hippo singing to the object of his desire: "Mud, mud, glorious mud, there's nothing quite like it for cooling the blood, so follow me, follow, down to the hollow and there let us wallow in glorious mud!"

Popular culture

The Hippopotamus Song was performed live by the duo in their subsequent stage shows. Re-published several times over the years, including a children's illustrated version, in 1970 a special edition with a two-part chorus was published and sold for 1s 6d. In 1991, the song was made into a children's book, A Muddy Love Story.

Today, it has become part of popular culture, as it so readily lends itself to parody. In September 2007, it was adopted by Walker's Crisps as part of the brand's long-running advertising campaign starring Gary Lineker.

The TV advert changed the words to: "Mud, mud, glorious mud, there's nothing quite like it for growing a spud," as a group of farmers danced in wellies in ankle-deep mud. At the end of the refrain, Lineker was thrown head-first into the potato field!

Mud, mud, glorious mud

Fancy wallowing in the mud? There’s plenty of it around at the moment! Make sure you're wearing Wellington boots - you don't want to end up slipping head-first, like a rather famous ex-footballer!

MA Grigg’s has everything you need to kit yourself out for wet weather and mud, mud, glorious mud! Give us a call on 01726 65656 for details of our products and services.