I Do Like To be Beside the Seaside

"I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside" is a popular British music hall song. It was written in 1907 by John A. Glover-Kind^[1] and made famous by music hall singer Mark Sheridan who first recorded it in 1909.^[2] It speaks of the singer's love for the seaside, and his wish to return there for his summer holidays each year. It was composed at a time when the yearly visits of the British working-class to the seaside were booming.

It was, for a long time, used as a signature tune by Reginald Dixon MBE, who was the resident organist at the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool between 1930-70.

Lyrics of the chorus

Now everybody likes to spend their summer holiday down beside the side of the silvery sea. I'm no exception to the rule, in fact, if I'd me way, I'd reside by the side of the silvery sea. But when you're just the common or garden Smith or Jones or Brown at business up in town, you're got to settle down. You save your money all the year 'til summer comes around. Then away you go to a place you know, where the cockle shells are found.

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside! I do like to be beside the sea! I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom! Where the brass bands play, "Tiddely-om-pom-pom!"

So just let me be beside the seaside! I'll be beside myself with glee and there's lots of girls beside, I should like to be beside, beside the seaside, beside the sea!

Now Billy Sykes for burglary been out to work one night, and filled his bag with cash and jewels and plate. And Constable Brown felt no surprised when William hove in sight. Said he, "The hours you're keeping are far too late." So he grabbed him by the collar and lodged him safe and sound in jail. Next morning looking pale, Bill told a tearful tale. The judge said, "For a couple of months I'm sending you away!" Said Bill: "How kind! Well if you don't mind, Where I spend my holiday!"

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside! I do like to be beside the sea! I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom! Where the brass bands play, "Tiddely-om-pom-pom!"

So just let me be beside the seaside! I'll be beside myself with glee and there's lots of girls beside, I should like to be beside, beside the seaside, beside the sea!

References in culture

• Cavalcade (1933), starring Diana Wynyard and Clive Brook, shows the song being performed by seaside entertainers in a scene set in 1909.
• Sylvia Scarlett (1935), starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
• Bank Holiday (1938), starring Margaret Lockwood and Hugh Williams. The tune is used as a theme several times during the film.
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), starring Basil Rathbone, involves a heavily disguised Holmes singing the song. An anachronism, as the film was set in 1894 thirteen years before the song was written.
• Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939), starring Peter Lorre and George Sanders. The antagonist's (Ricardo Cortez) ventriloquism act features a dummy singing the song while he drinks a glass of water and smokes a cigarette.
• Carry On... Follow That Camel (1967): when the foreign legionnaires become lost in the North African desert they sing the song.
• Oh What a Lovely War (1969) features a pierside scene where Sir Douglas Haig is trying to recruit for the First World War, with the words of the song changed to “I do to like to see a lot of soldiers”.
• The Doctor Who episodes Death to the Daleks and The Leisure Hive feature the song. In the first it was sung by the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) while in the second it was part of the music score of the episode.
• The opening two sentences in the chorus are included at the end of the song Seven Seas Of Rhye (1974) from Queen. It is also whistled at the beginning of the song "Brighton Rock" from the Album Sheer Heart Attack.
• The Goodies episode Holidays (1982) features the song as part of the "Victorian musical evening", at first sung only by Tim Brooke-Taylor, before Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie join in, and it becomes a punk rock song.
• An Awfully Big Adventure (1994), starring Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman, includes a scene where two theatre troupes sing the chorus of the song while riding a bus to a football game.
• Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service Season 7 Episode 18 (2010), starring David McCallum, includes a scene where he is walking by the seaside singing the song.
• In Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned the song is sung near the end of "Off Route" mission by cannibalistic serial killer Curtis Stocker.
• Thomas & Friends episode Thomas the Quarry Engine (2014) ends with Mavis, Salty, Cranky, Thomas, and Porter singing the song. It is also sung in the episode "Toad and the Whale" (2015).
• Mr. Bean (animated TV series) episode Holiday for Teddy ,Mr Bean sings the song.
• The Vicar of Dibley, Dawn French, sings the chorus while intoxicated in the "Merry Christmas" episode .
• In the Outlander (TV series), the song is sung by Claire Fraser to her stillborn child, Faith, in episode 207, "Faith" (2016).

References