Right Said Fred (song)
| "Right Said Fred" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Bernard Cribbins | ||||
| B-side | "Quietly Bonkers" | |||
| Released | 29 June 1962 | |||
| Studio | Abbey Road Studios | |||
| Genre | Novelty song | |||
| Length | 2:20 | |||
| Label | Parlophone | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Ted Dicks and Myles Rudge | |||
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
| Bernard Cribbins singles chronology | ||||
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"Right Said Fred" (also written "Right, Said Fred") is a novelty song of 1962 written by Ted Dicks and Myles Rudge.
It is about three moving men (Fred, Charlie, and the unnamed narrator) trying without success to move a large and unwieldy piece of furniture from an apartment. The item has feet, a seat, handles and candleholders and is never identified but is often interpreted as being a piano. In the animated film version (see below) it is depicted as such; however, in the 1970 television performance of the song on the sketch show Cribbins it is depicted as a kind of small pipe organ.
The movers eventually give up after dismantling the piece of furniture and partially demolishing the building – including removing a door, a wall, and the ceiling – and taking numerous tea breaks.
The lyrics do not specify whether Fred recovers from "half a ton of rubble on the top of his dome" (slang for head) prior to the others having a final tea break and going home. Dicks said that he was inspired to write the song by events that transpired when he employed movers to move a grand piano he had bought. The band Right Said Fred is named after the song.