If your my age or above you would remember the radio 2 show Sing Something Simple.
It was as I remember though older brains may put me right it was the Mike Sammes singers that sang the tunes continuously for 30 minutes every Sunday evening.

My plans are to bring this programme back when Sheffield Live gets on FM this year, ( If exepted) though I'll not go on about that.
It will be geared for older listeners and I know the younger generation will not be attracted to this but it will bring in dedicated listeners week after week.

What is your views about the programme, do you think it could work today and would any of the more mature out there like it back.
I believe there is no other programme on radio like it today.
Your views please, it would be 30 minutes like it used to be with no DJ.

Hi Paul,

My parents listened to this program - I remember it well. I think it was the Cliff Adams Singers, though - I could be wrong there. They were the close harmony vocalists, no instruments, weren't they?

The SSS slot seems to be occupied these days by 'Melodies For You', which I remember as being on on Sunday Mornings back in my childhood.

Good Luck with the project!

There were also 'Forces Favorites' for soldiers overseas, and 'Family Favorites' for people at home. 'Workers Playtime' was another one where they went to different factories every day and get all the people singing along.
They were all morale boosting programmes in the dark days after the War
also 'Chidrens Favorites' for us kids as well!

If your my age or above you would remember the radio 2 show Sing Something Simple.
It was as I remember though older brains may put me right it was the Mike Sammes singers that sang the tunes continuously for 30 minutes every Sunday evening.
My plans are to bring this programme back when Sheffield Live gets on FM this year, ( If exepted) though I'll not go on about that.
It will be geared for older listeners and I know the younger generation will not be attracted to this but it will bring in dedicated listeners week after week.
What is your views about the programme, do you think it could work today and would any of the more mature out there like it back.
I believe there is no other programme on radio like it today.
Your views please, it would be 30 minutes like it used to be with no DJ.
hi paul.
no, it was NOT Mike Sammes singers, it was the CLIFF ADAMS SINGERS.
Good luck in your quest paul, i think a show like this would go down very well. not only for the older generation but also for the younger as well.I remember listening to the show when travelling in the car with my grandparents. pitty you could not bring the Black & White Minstrals back as well. another great show of its day.

[repeated]

hi paul.
no, it was NOT Mike Sammes singers, it was the CLIFF ADAMS SINGERS.
Good luck in your quest paul, i think a show like this would go down very well. not only for the older generation but also for the younger as well.I remember listening to the show when travelling in the car with my grandparents. pitty you could not bring the Black & White Minstrals back as well. another great show of its day.

hi Juliediane

Yes, thanks for you and Joe it was the Cliff Adams singers.
I hope to pilot it by chopping off 30 minutes of my Friday slot from 90 to 60 and linking it with that.
The Minstrals I'm affraid would not be an option today as they are part of the PC brigade.but your right they were great to listen to.

I always used to listen to it. I thought it was great. I would love to hear them again. Good luck with the prog.

Memories, I remember this programme. I`m sure it followed Pick of the Pops usually 7.00 on Sundays. I was only young but before Television took over it was our only entertainment. Wow, where did the years go?:help:

Memories for me of the back of the car on the way home from my Gran's house. After the top 20 on Radio 2 and Radio 1. I seem to remember they used to join together for some of the time (Top 20 and Junior Choice I remember, though there may have been more).
Reception always used to be better on Radio 2 (1500) than Radio 1 (247) especially after dark.

Why not go the whole hog and bring back Mrs. Mills, Winifred Atwell and the monologues of Al Read.

Sing Something Simple must have still been airing in the 1970s when I ws in my early teens, because I remember that my dad would listen to it on the radio whilst he took a Sunday evening nap.

Till Man - yup, Radio 2 on 1500 metres was better than Radio 1 on 247 metres after dark because the higher frequency signals of Radio 1 started suffering interference from the Continent and also fading as the ionosphere changed from day to night state. Loxembourg on 208 metres would start coming in as Radio 1 got worse.

I remember it. I hated it with a vengance. I can still hear the theme tune even now. Who can I sue?

SING SOMETHING SIMPLE... hated it.....embarassingly I have many of those shows on tape as they followed the Radio 1 top 40 show from about 1976 to the mid 80's and my tapes often over ran, so have lots of them!!!!!!!

She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes, bom bom bom.....
She'ss be coming round the mountains when she comes, da da da....

SING SOMETHING SIMPLE... hated it.....embarassingly I have many of those shows on tape as they followed the Radio 1 top 40 show from about 1976 to the mid 80's and my tapes often over ran, so have lots of them!!!!!!!

She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes, bom bom bom.....
She'ss be coming round the mountains when she comes, da da da....

Hey come fleece, you were a young spring chicken into disco and now your, better not go there:hihi: well your no spring chicken now, like wise:gag: .
Maybe you may actually sing a long.
It brings back memories of that Sunday evening dreading school the next day on those dark cold evenings.
It was always dark when that came on the radio always reminds me of winter.

I remember this radio show it was on after the Pick of the Pops with Alan Fluff Freeman.

Well nobody's mentioned Jack Emblow on the accordian!

You can't talk about Sing Something Simple without mentioning him!


You should all be ashamed! ;)

Cliff Adams was born in 1923 and was a former singer with the Stargazers, a popular vocal group on BBC radio throughout the 1950s with six top 20 hits. The Cliff Adams singers were formed in 1954 and this series was heard on Sunday evenings on Radio 2 until 2001 after a mammoth run of 42 years. The group re sang well-known melodies from decades gone by. Cliff's also composed for TV commercials including Fry’s Turkish Delight, Cadbury’s Milk Tray and Cadbury’s Smash. Cliff arranged and performed on Sing Something Simple until his death in 2001.

(From www.radiorewind.co.uk)

Why not go the whole hog and bring back Mrs. Mills, Winifred Atwell and the monologues of Al Read.

Sorry, all are dead. It would be a miracle if they could be brought back. I once met Mrs Mills. She was a very down to earth lady. Very interesting to talk to.

I remember it. I hated it with a vengance. I can still hear the theme tune even now. Who can I sue?


It was on as early as 1962. You could buy an LP of the Cliffe Adams singers. It was exactly like the radio show.

My very first transistor radio was purchase by my parents for me in around 1956 or so.....an Alba. I remember thinking it was gold dust to me then.

As a youngster the Carol Levis Discoveries programme from Radio Luxembourg (I think it was on Sunday evenings 208 Medium Wave) was a must in my early-teenage years of the 50's. As Joe says the signal was often blown out by interference.

I remember hearing SSS on occasions but by then it would only be when driving in the car and not intentional listening, probably the '70s. I liked the music though, but TV intruded of course.

I love harmony singing, and remain a great fan of Barbershop Quartets. I am afraid is is virtually a lost art these days, and is certainly not "hip" enough for modern media transmission.

Best of luck Paul...let us know here when it starts. I will be listening.

Hey come fleece, you were a young spring chicken into disco and now your, better not go there:hihi: well your no spring chicken now, like wise:gag: .
Maybe you may actually sing a long.
It brings back memories of that Sunday evening dreading school the next day on those dark cold evenings.
It was always dark when that came on the radio always reminds me of winter.


One is as young as the women one feels.........and I am saying NOTHING else!!!

My very first transistor radio was purchase by my parents for me in around 1956 or so.....an Alba. I remember thinking it was gold dust to me then.

As a youngster the Carol Levis Discoveries programme from Radio Luxembourg (I think it was on Sunday evenings 208 Medium Wave) was a must in my early-teenage years of the 50's. As Joe says the signal was often blown out by interference.

I remember hearing SSS on occasions but by then it would only be when driving in the car and not intentional listening, probably the '70s. I liked the music though, but TV intruded of course.

I love harmony singing, and remain a great fan of Barbershop Quartets. I am afraid is is virtually a lost art these days, and is certainly not "hip" enough for modern media transmission.

Best of luck Paul...let us know here when it starts. I will be listening.

Hi Shoe.
I was thinking it may not be all that hip these days but there a lot out there that would like to listen to that kind of programme.
I am right of course with the responce to this that most did and would like it back.
The youngsters of course would not but it isn't geared towards the new generation it will be geared to the 3rd and 4th generations.
It may be worth a shot.
I am going to pilot it on Fridays at 17.00 and hopefully get it on Sunday evening on FM.

Good Luck to you mate.

like quite a few in this thread, this takes me straight back to Sunday Teatime in the 60's. Just had me bath and came down to Welsh rarebit. Mum singing along to "sing something simple" on the Pye 'Portable' radio (big and heavy as a brick and only portable to the nearest power socket) - she then let me listen to Fluff Freeman counting down the top twenty.

Happy Days - but like one of the previous posters - why does this only bring memories back of dark evenings?

Its the same with another of those types of shows they had on a Sunday with Sam Costa - 'nice and cosy' feel of teatimes in winter.

Hi everyone

This thread has brought a positive responce and I am convinced that the return of Sing Something Simple would be welcomed back on radio.
I am going to put together a pilot to go out next Friday at 17.00 - 17.30.
I will continue to do this until I get a sunday evening slot or when we go onto FM which ever comes first.
The programme will get the best responce on FM but until then If you could get the chance to hear it I would be gratefull, and even more gratefull for your comments.
The station will be the best place to send your comments, email address is on the site below and what ever your view it would be welcome.
It will go out as I remember it no changes and no modernisation, just good old Cliff Adams and his singers.
Pilot will go out on Friday 21 July at 17.00.

Hope you will like it.
Paul

www.sheffieldlive.org

My parents took us out for a drive after Sunday lunch during the Summer months - mostly around the Peak District - and this programme seems to be the strongest memory of those outings, apart from a montage of disparate landscapes viewed from a back seat window with this programme as a soundtrack.
Could be popular - but ( as already mentioned) - what would the playlist be nowadays ?

how about victor sylvesta and his orchestra, and WAKEY-WAKEY,beyond the horn,and tommy trinder, or the the goon show,all favourites at one time.

I remember it mainly cos the Top 40 came on after it when Radio 1 either switched to Radio 2 (or broadcast simultaneously, can't remember now) :D

Remember SSS well.
They used to play it on the fishing coaches coming back from Boston area on a Sunday teatime. All the old fellas thought it was great and us kids had to turn off the transistor radios so they could listen to it.
Even after all these years can still remember the words to it. How sad does that make me?

Remember SSS well.
They used to play it on the fishing coaches coming back from Boston area on a Sunday teatime. All the old fellas thought it was great and us kids had to turn off the transistor radios so they could listen to it.
Even after all these years can still remember the words to it. How sad does that make me?

Now that your older, you may not think its sad anymore.
You can find out how sad it really was today on Sheffield live at 17.00
The links in my signature.

This takes me back. My dad used to listen to it when I was a kid. I wouldn't say I liked or disliked the show but I do have memories of deep gloom and feelings of "death" when it was on. Even now 30 odd years later I can still remember the Sunday tea-time sense of doom.

The memories I do have for Sing-something- simple.
Sunday, which was Bezzer and Topper day, me and my sister sat at the table squabbling over our comics, while our mam was shufferling about in the kitchen, carpet slipper, hair in curlers and fag in gob, preparing Sunday dinner, With the occasional outburst of:
“Keep it darn in deea, am try’n t’lisen t’chuffin wireless”.
And if at any time Frankie Vaughn came on, God help us if we made a sound, I think she had the hots for him.

But the art of barbershop singing is alive and well in Sheffield! In fact the most successful British barbershop chorus is right here in this city!

By the way, what is this Sheffield Live? Am I missing something I should know about?

Sorry, forgot to say the barbershop chorus is Hallmark of Harmony, and can be found at www.hallmarkofharmony.co.uk . There is also a very good ladies' barbershop chorus.

I remember it. I hated it with a vengance. I can still hear the theme tune even now. Who can I sue?
Same here.Was always on a Sunday night & it meant school or work the next day.Seemed really old fashioned to me as a teenager,and we would have rather had Frank Sinatra,Perry Como or Dean Martin.

This brought back lots of good memories, my sister and me used to have our bath night, then be allowed to listen to SSS, what bliss!!

I remember this program it was on in the early Sunday evenings while I was falling asleep in the back of my Dads "Ford Anglia" coming back from a days fishing in Lincolnshire...I must have been about 11 years old.

And what about "Melody Ranch" with Bill Cambell..I used to love that song that they used to sing called "Cool Cool Water"

well I have had this show running a few weeks now, as anyone actually listened to it, it follows my own show at 5.30.
It will go out next Friday at 17.30 then every two weeks from then on.
Some feedbck would be usfull, appreciate some on here if you can listen in.

well I have had this show running a few weeks now, as anyone actually listened to it, it follows my own show at 5.30.
It will go out next Friday at 17.30 then every two weeks from then on.
Some feedbck would be usfull, appreciate some on here if you can listen in.
What are you on Radio Sheffield ?

And what about "Melody Ranch" with Bill Cambell..I used to love that song that they used to sing called "Cool Cool Water"

All day I face
The barren waste
Without a taste
Of water
Coooool water

Jumped straight into my head when I read your post Timbuck :D

Old Dan and I
With throats burned dry
And souls that cry
For water
Cooool water

...think that's the last verse ?

Frankie Laine sang this and possibly The Sons of the Pioneers?

All day I face
The barren waste
Without a taste
Of water
Coooool water

Jumped straight into my head when I read your post Timbuck :D

Old Dan and I
With throats burned dry
And souls that cry
For water
Cooool water

...think that's the last verse ? I liked the middle bit that went ..Keep a movin Dan, Dont listen to him Dan He's a devil not a man and he fills the burning sands with water....... Coooool Cleeeeear wateeeeeer....Er I'm off for a drink now.

Like Pattricia says, where do we listen? I hope you start the programme as Cliff Adams did.
"Welcome to Sing Something Simple, not only listening but joining in with all these songs you know so well".

I remember it well, on a Sunday. Nobody actually listened to it, it was just that the radio happened to be on for some reason. It was dreadful, truly dreadful. The day I listen to Sing Something Simple rather than a bit of heavy metal or something cutting edge and avant-garde is the day I know I'll be ready to be euthanased.

I used to think it was for people who had gone senile, hence they couldn't cope with something more complicated. It's a frightening thought actually. What are the care homes of the future going to be like: full of people listening to Black Sabbath and trying to play Half Life, or sometime in the next forty years will some mysterious prion or virus turn my brain to mush so that I like listening to Sing Something Simple instead?

Every sucess to your effort to bring back SSS. Harmony singing is beautiful. Sadly Singing in Schools and Church Choirs are declining they formed a great introduction to Hamony singing

I remember it well, on a Sunday. Nobody actually listened to it, it was just that the radio happened to be on for some reason. It was dreadful, truly dreadful. The day I listen to Sing Something Simple rather than a bit of heavy metal or something cutting edge and avant-garde is the day I know I'll be ready to be euthanased.

I used to think it was for people who had gone senile, hence they couldn't cope with something more complicated. It's a frightening thought actually. What are the care homes of the future going to be like: full of people listening to Black Sabbath and trying to play Half Life, or sometime in the next forty years will some mysterious prion or virus turn my brain to mush so that I like listening to Sing Something Simple instead?

Hehe heh! I have to say it's not my idea of radio heaven, but plenty did like it, so ........

I'm looking forward to my grandkids (if my three wonderful daughters are ever let near males), being sat on my knee, asking me,

"Gramps, sing me one like they did in the olden days, please?", before I launch into a full headbanging and moshing version of something like "Raining Blood" by Slayer, or "Betrayer" by Kreator.

My Werthers Originals will remain my own.

And now a return to your original programming .............

During the sixties and seventies, "Sing Something Simple" would feature songs from the 40's and 50's.
That means that if it came on now it they would be singing songs which were originally recorded in the 80s and 90s.
I somehow can't imagine Cliff Adams singing
"Shy Fly Boss Watch Jam Nitty-Gritty
You're listening to the boy from the big bad city,
this is Ja-am Hot!"

Reminds we of Sunday night and the dread of Monday morning.

All day I face
The barren waste
Without a taste
Of water
Coooool water

Jumped straight into my head when I read your post Timbuck :D

Old Dan and I
With throats burned dry
And souls that cry
For water
Cooool water

...think that's the last verse ?

Not sure if this is the last verse but it goes something like this:-

Dan can't you see the big green tree
where the waters running free
and its waiting there for you and meeeeee
waterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
cooooooooool cleeeeeeeeear waterrrrrrrrr

Just found the lyrics to cool water


http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/laine-frankie/cool-water-12570.html

Good luck to you & your new programme.When SSS finished,part of the real England died.Britain was a much safer,nicer place then.Now were bombarded with mindless electronic drug induced garbage, spewed out by inbred people who brainwash young people into thinking this must be good,because its played incessantly,and the sad thing is the kids to-day wont know what they have missed,God bless Ronnie Hilton,Anne Shelton and all the rest of Em.

Oh my god, SSS reminds me of LONG journeys home in the car when me and my sisters were at that age where nothing was cool except Radio 1 - but we had no choice what station was on when dad was in the car!
It must have been on a fair few years because I remember as I got a little older my dad used to get us to join in (against our own free will of course).

My dad loved it, and am sure has probably already posted on here supporting the "Bring back SSS" campaign.

Dad - don't expect me to listen to it this time around, ive got my own car now!!

Listen Astronaut, You may be a bit bigger, but I'm still the boss. If I had my way, Sing Something Simple would be played to school assemblies. ??? Do they still have such things? Love You.