My Old Man's a Dustman

The song was written by Lonnie Donegan, Peter Buchanan (Donegan's manager between 1956 and 1962),^[2] and Beverly Thorn; Thorn was not credited on the original release. According to his autobiography, Beverley Thorn was a pseudonym of the songwriter Leslie Bricusse.^[3]

It probably has its origins in "My Father Was a Fireman", a song sung by British World War I troops. The two songs share a lyrical similarity in their reference to "cor blimey trousers".^[4] It also was a popular shanty, as versions included references to the Elder Dempster shipping line; in the 1950 film Waterfront, the character played by Robert Newton sings "My old man's a fireman on Elder Dempster boat; he wears cor-blimey trousers and a little cor-blimey hat" as he abandons his family for the sea.^[5] A song beginning with the line "My old man's a dustman", but otherwise sharing no lyrics with Donegan's, is recorded as a playground song in the 1956 novel My Old Man's a Dustman by Wolf Mankowitz. This song tells of the exploits of the protagonist at the Battle of Mons.^[6] A version concerning a football game and beginning "My old man's a scaffie [dustman or street-sweeper, from scavenger]^[7]/He wears a scaffie's hat" (echoing the first two lines of Donegan's song) is recorded as a Scottish playground song during the 1950s.^[8] A very similar song, beginning "My old man's a baker", is recorded in Chester-le-Street in 1967.^[9] All of these songs share the same metric structure.

The melody is borrowed from the theme starting at around 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the music for the ballet Petrushka, composed by Igor Stravinsky.^{[citation needed]}

The song represented a change in style for Donegan, away from American folk and towards British music hall.^[10]

On 16 March 1960, through Pye Records in the UK, Donegan released a version of the song recorded live at the Gaumont cinema in Doncaster just a few weeks earlier, on 20 February.^[11] The B-side was a version of the English folk song "The Golden Vanity". The single reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 31 March and maintained that position for four weeks.^[12] It also reached number one in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and on the Canadian CHUM Chart for 2 weeks, selling over a million copies in total.^[13][14]

In 1960, a Dutch version was released by Toby Rix. Also in 1960, a parody version, "My Old Man's An All-Black", was released in New Zealand by the Howard Morrison Quartet in reaction to the New Zealand rugby tour of Apartheid-era South Africa.^[15][16] The song was performed by the Bee Gees on the Australian TV show Bandstand in 1963, and, in the US, the Smothers Brothers included a parody based on the song on their LP Think Ethnic. In 1966, The Irish Rovers included a version of the song on their LP The First of the Irish Rovers.

A parody version titled ‘My Old Man’s a Provo’, by Gerry O’Glacain of the Irish Brigade, became one of the most popular Irish republican rebel folk songs in the latter part of the twentieth century.^[17]

The tune to the chorus has become a popular football chant in recent years. For example, Arsenal supporters sang "Arsène Wenger's magic, he wears a magic hat, and when he saw the double, he said 'I'm having that!'" at the end of their double winning season in 2002; Chelsea fans later adopted it after ex-Arsenal player Cesc Fabregas assisted the Blues in securing a double of their own in 2015.^[18]