Friday, July 5, 2024

Colonel Bogey March

Yesterday I was listening to patriotic tunes from the various Armed Forces bands when all of sudden I heard a tune I hadn't considered in years - The Colonel Bogey March.  Anyone who has ever been to summer camp or in Boy or Girl Scouts would likely recognize it.  From Wikipedia:

The "Colonel Bogey March" is a British march that was composed in 1914 by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts (1881–1945) (pen name Kenneth J. Alford), a British Army bandmaster who later became the director of music for the Royal Marines at Plymouth. The march is often whistled. Featuring in films since it first appeared in The Lady Vanishes in 1938, Empire magazine included the tune in its list of 25 of Cinema's Catchiest Earworms.

As Wikipedia notes, The Colonel Bogey March shows up in many movies, most famously in The Bridge on the River Kwai.  

But Wikipedia does not have the youthful variants which all who have been to camp know.  I think the first version I first encountered was something along the lines of:

Comet, it makes your teeth turn green;
Comet, it tastes like Listerine;
Comet, will make you vomit;
So get some Comet and vomit today.

What a tapestry.  Commercially successful music, classic movies, camping.  

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