The George Formby Connection

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Update: Rotten Apple 68 T is here.
AND I am getting tired of these big fires that correspond to Rotten Apple Videos. This time it is Universal Studios.
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At the very end of the “Free as a Bird” video you see a man on a stage photographed from behind. From all accounts the man is supposed to represent George Formby. George Harrison became a huge fan of Formby and even acquired Formby’s gold-plated ukulele, which was recently put up for auction. If you listen to the corresponding audio in the last few seconds of “Free As A Bird” you hear what sounds like John Lennon’s voice saying a phrase which is difficult to interpret, but clearly includes the words “John Lennon.” If you play it backwards you clearly hear the phrase “Turned out nice again.” [Iamaphoney interpreted it as "Hear That Noise Again" in Rotten Apple 9]

George Formby would use the line “Turned out nice again” at the end of his performances. It was also the title of a song he recorded.



And, "Turned Out Nice Again" was the title of a movie he made in 1941.



George Formby also co-produced the movie “We’ll Meet Again” which featured the title song sung by its star Vera Lynn.
I think that is Vera Lynn to the left-middle in the George Formby picture below.



The Pink Floyd song “Vera” from “The Wall” contains the lyrics:

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
Remember how she said that we would meet again some sunny day?

John Lennon even sings a bit of “We’ll Meet Again” at the end of his interview with Bob Harris for the “Old Grey Whistle Test.” That interview is also the source of John’s famous statement about “Two are flying and two are not” on the Sgt. Pepper cover, but unfortunately that part of the interview was not included in the official DVD release.



Vera Lynn's recording also appeared in the Stanley Kubrick film "Dr. Strangelove."

The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Stanley Kubrick for that matter all had influences when they were growing up, so it makes sense that some of these stars would be in their consciousness. But, the George Formby fixation seemed to manifest itself strongly in the Beatles Anthology. Aja, a frequent contributor here reported that George Harrison rediscovered Formby in the 1980s, so that could explain his desire to salute him in the Anthology.

George Formby’s movie “Turned Out Nice Again” might have been his best performance because it featured more character development than your ordinary 1940s screwball British comedy.



Also appearing in that movie was a young Wilfrid Hyde-White as Removal man. Nearly three decades later, Hyde-White portrayed, of all things, the Captain of “The Magic Christian.”



But that’s not the only thing that made me raise my eyebrows, because in 1949 Wilfrid Hyde-White made a film in which he played the dual role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The film was called “Helter Skelter.”



As we dig deeper we find a clip of Peter Sellers delivering a Nazi improv on the Parkinson Show and then telling how legend has it that his father taught George Formby to play. Check out the clip here.

And let's finish completely over the top with something from The Sleaze - Turned Out Nazi Again.