Enjoy yourself

In a shop I overhead the beginning of Simon Mayo’s Radio 2 show, and noticed that he employs the old standard Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think) as his opening theme music.

Guy Lombardo made it famous, but Mayo uses a 2007 recording by Jools Holland and Prince Buster (like the one that starts a minute or so into the above video), and I was instantly transported back to an outdoor concert at Westonbirt Arboretum in that year or thereabouts, where Jools Holland headlined with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.

Enjoy Yourself closed the show, the final, bouncy encore….

Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as you wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself,
It’s later than you think

Oh my, what a bummer. Why, I wondered then and still do now, would anyone think that a blunt reminder of the inevitability of death is a good singalong  number? After a jolly, champagne-fuelled picnic gig, do I really need to confront my brief mortality in all its stark helplessness? The mind blanks at the glare. We may as well recite Larkin poems in unison.

On the dark trudge back to the carpark a reveller of stunning thickheadedness attempted to get an impromptu singalong going…”Enjoy yourself, come on everybody… It’s lay-ter than you think…come on!” His efforts fell stillborn into the summer gloom.

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3 thoughts on “Enjoy yourself

  1. Gaw
    September 17, 2010 at 14:44

    I always preferred The Skinhead Moonstomp. Much more upbeat.

  2. johngjobling@googlemail.com'
    malty
    September 17, 2010 at 16:01

    Georgie Fame was never the same after some spoilsport blew out his blue flames. Holland used to park his motorhome overnight on double yellow lines outside of the Tyne Tees TV studios back when, Driving past early one morning I noticed that it was, well, rocking. Being in festive mood I started the rumour that he was knocking off Geldorfs missus.

    Well! wouldn’t you?

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