"England Swings"
Single by Roger Miller
from the album Golden Hits
B-side"Good Old Days"
ReleasedNovember 1965 (1965)
GenreCountry
LabelSmash Records
Songwriter(s)Roger Miller
Producer(s)Jerry Kennedy
Roger Miller singles chronology
"Kansas City Star"
(1965)		 "England Swings"
(1965)		 "Husbands and Wives"
(1966)

"England Swings" is a 1965 country music song written and performed by Roger Miller. The single was Miller's eleventh hit on the US country chart where it peaked at number three.[1] On the Billboard Hot 100, it peaked at number eight and was Miller's second number one on the Easy Listening chart. Petula Clark (from the Colour My World album)[2] and Pat Boone both released cover versions in 1967.

The title refers to Swinging London, a popular term for the youth-centric cultural scene in London at the time, as in the opening line of the refrain: "England Swings, like a pendulum do". The lyrics, however, mostly relate to traditional notions of Britain, with references to "bobbies on bicycles", Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, plus, the "Rosy-red cheeks of the little children." The song also provides the structure for Miller's later song "Oo De Lally (Robin Hood and Little John)" for the film Robin Hood. The song is featured in the 2012 BBC documentary How The Brits Rocked America, in which Miller is presented as mocking the youth culture. Miller sang his own harmony and did his own harmonic whistling on the song.

Cover versions and renditions

The song was covered by The Wiggles and Keith Urban on the Australian version of the album Let's Eat, released in 2010.[3]

Chart history

Chart (1965–66) Peak
position
Australia 23
Canada CHUM Chart[4] 9
New Zealand [5] 4
UK Singles Chart 13
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 8
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 1

See also

References

  1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 231.
  2. ↑ Discography Archived 2009-12-19 at the Wayback Machine at Petula Clark's official site
  3. ↑ Wilkening, Matthew (January 21, 2011). "The Wiggles Feat. Keith Urban, 'England Swings' – Song Spotlight". Taste of Country.
  4. ↑ "CHUM Hit Parade - December 27, 1965".
  5. ↑ "Flavour of New Zealand: Lever Hit Parades". flavourofnz.co.nz. 1966-01-27. Retrieved 2016-09-29.


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