Which patriotic show tune occupied the UK Singles Chart for 17 weeks in 1967?
Edelweiss (song) "Edelweiss" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music". It is named after the edelweiss, a white flower found high in the Alps "(Leontopodium alpinum)". It was created for the 1959 Broadway production of "The Sound of Music" in the role originated by performer Theodore Bikel as a song for the character of Captain Georg Ludwig von Trapp. In the musical, Captain von Trapp and his family sing this song during the concert near the end of Act II as a statement of Austrian patriotism in the face of the pressure put upon him to join the navy of Nazi Germany following the Anschluss. It is also Captain von Trapp's subliminal goodbye to his beloved homeland, using the flower as a symbol of his loyalty to Austria. In the 1965 film adaptation, the song is also sung by the Captain earlier in the film when he rediscovers music with his children.
Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh was a comedy show broadcast from 1944 to 1954, firstly by BBC radio and subsequently Radio Luxembourg. It starred Kenneth Horne and Richard Murdoch as senior staff in a fictional RAF station battling red tape and wartime inconvenience. Over the years the station turned to non-combatant operations, became a country club ("the proposed membership drive has been cancelled as it is far cheaper to give everyone a bus ticket") and finally a newspaper, "The Weekly Bind". The programme's title may have been inspired by the RAF station at Moreton-in-Marsh, along with the word "binding", period RAF slang for difficulties or problems accompanied by whining or complaining. One of the most fondly remembered parts of the show was the closing theme tune, with topical lyrics each week referring to the plot of the episode, written and sung by members of the cast.