Heard the song “the lion sleeps tonight” on tv other day & it took me back to the year of 1961 when the original came out by the Tokens.
I remember it well, I was about 16 living in Burnley with my parents, & usually I was first up & would immediately put the radio on as I was well into music then, as I’d started playing sax at 9years old, & as there were no pirate radio stations then or radio1, I always listened to the German (or Danish) version of radio Luxembourg which played all the latest pop, the English radio lux was of course transmitting in the evenings.
I remember it was winter & whilst I had a portable electric fire on, if I had time I would light the coal fire with a ‘blower’ a piece of metal with a handle.on it over which you placed a large sheet of newspaper to force the draft up the chimney to get the fire roaring, which sometimes catches on fire sending smoke in the living room. & sparks shooting out of the chimney, ah what memories, no health & safety in those days!!!
That was before portable radios, tape decks & whatever were invented, in fact I don’t think we had a fridge then either, because I recollect going to a girlfriends house where her mum gave me some crumbly cheese out of their fridge, I loved it & consequently told my mum when I got home, begging for us to get one. We did have a square black & white tv though.
Well there you go, all that info from just hearing a song on a tv add.
This particular song seems to have cropped up in my life a few times as in the post below from 2010, regarding radio Luxembourg.