The Editor Speaks: I awoke with a tune
My wife Joan nearly always awakes with a tune on her mind.
Often it is a tune she has heard the day before but there are other occasions when a tune has come into her head she hasn’t heard for years and years.
It doesn’t happen to me so often but last Thursday one did. And I haven’t heard it in years and years and years.
And there it was popping up all day and there I am humming it and even singing the words.
Now if it was some great song or hymn it wouldn’t have been so bad but it wasn’t. It was a ghastly piece of work from my childhood early television days and I am going to annoy you now by writing it down for you.
How many of you remember this?
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men
Feared by the bad, loved by the good
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood
I actually remembered and sang every single word just for the amusement of Joan.
And for the heck of it I looked it up and found the two simply awful verses:
He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green
They vowed to help the people of the King
They handled all the trouble on the English country scene
And still found plenty of time to sing
And
He came to Sherwood Forest with a feather in his cap
A fighter never looking for a fight
His bow was always ready and he kept his arrows sharp
He used them to fight for what was right
It was written by Carl Sigman and was the theme song for a British television series called “The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene. The recording of the song was by Dick James. A name I do not ever remember. The show aired from 1955 until 1959. CBS also aired the show.
Whatever made me remember this song?
After more research and most I have to confess was utterly useless the best was an article that appeared in the UK Daily Mirror.
“Experts” say “the likelihood of getting an ‘earworm’ – the term for having a song in your head – is not just down to how catchy the tune is. Stress, memories and triggers in your environment can all play a part.”
So it’s stress that put that dreadful song into my head!!
Apparently it is not always stress. You can see something that triggers it off.
“Dr Williamson’s own earworm experience was triggered by seeing a shoebox from the shop Faith in her office, causing her to have George Michael’s song of the same name in her head for hours.
She added: ‘Because music can be encoded in so many ways, it’s what we call a ‘multi-sensory stimulus’.
‘Music is often encoded in a very personal and emotional way, and we know that when we encode anything with emotional or personal connotations, it’s recalled better in memory.’
“And if you are worried you will have that song stuck in your head forever? Dr Williamson recommends trying to displace it with a different tune. She is also studying whether activities like running or doing a crossword help.”
I am singing “God Save our Gracious Queen” and hoping that works.
I pray to God that I will wake up with a much, much better tune than Robin Hood.
The song was adopted by Nottingham Forest Football Club decades ago and throughout the regime of Brian Clough, England’s most famous football club manager. Robin was a real person and got married in Edwinstowe church two miles away from where he lived, in the major oak tree. He was a real person. I know as I am a direct descendent of Robin on my father’s side of the family.
Colin, keep singing away.
My dad, Carl Sigman, wrote the words and music to “Robin Hood.” He also wrote “Ebb Tide,” “It’s All In The Game,” “Crazy He Calls Me,” “What Now, My Love,” and around 800 other songs, most of which were pretty good. Dick James later became the Beatles publisher; “Robin Hood” was produced by George Martin, who also went on to have a pretty good career…
Thank you Michael. All those songs you mention are very good and favourites of mind especially “What Now, My Love”. It doesn’t, however, change my opinion of the Robin Hood song. The tune, though, was and still is very catchy. As I can verify from all those years ago.