Grumblebee, one of my Metafilter cohorts, recently posted this recollection:
When I was a kid, my dad, who grew up in London, during the Blitz, used to play this old record: a song called “The Laughing Policeman.” It always put a smile on my face.
According to Wikipedia, it was written in 1922 by Charles Jolly, who wrote "numerous other laughing songs (The Laughing Major, Curate, Steeplechaser, Typist, Lover, etc)." If you want to hear the happiest policeman ever, here’s the mp3.
The song has inspired cartoonists, mystery novelists, filmmakers, a more-recent recording (mp3), and, inevitably, some scary people on youtube. Speaking of youtube, this is how I remember the song:
I’ve never heard this song before, but it sounds very typical of the comedy records of the early twenties. I can imagine Billy Murray recording a version of it. Metafilter user Massless added more about the song’s origins:
The song’s origins might be more interesting that at first glance. Here’s a recording on wax cylinder of The Laughing Song (mp3) via the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project. According to them it’s from a wax series made somewhere between 1896-1901. It features George W. Johnson, the first popular African-American recording artist who also recorded other laughing songs (mp3). If I’m hearing this correctly The Laughing Song and The Laughing Policeman are the same music and melody, though the song’s subject and lyrics changed significantly at some point as "a fat and jolly red-faced man" was sung as "here comes a dandy darky" instead.
The Library of Congress (via the rare book collection at Duke University) includes original images of the sheet music for The Laughing Song. It was published in 1894 nearly 30 years before the recording of The Laughing Policeman and Penrose(Lolly) does not appear to be credited.
The earlier song seems to bubble on bitter tones, Johnson’s 2nd verse is darkly suggestive to me: They said his mother was a Princess, his father was a Prince/And he’d been the apple of their eye if he had not been a quince/But he’ll be the King of Africa/In the sweet by and bye/And when I heard them say it why I laughed until I cried.
Fascinating stuff.
[Metafilter: The Laughing Policeman]