"Run, Rabbit, Run" is a 1939 song written by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler. The music was by Noel Gay and the song was originally sung by Flanagan and Allen accompanied by the Harry Bidgood orchestra.
This song was written for Noel Gay's show The Little Dog Laughed, which opened on 11 October 1939, at a time when most of the major London theatres were closed. It was a popular song during World War II, especially after Flanagan and Allen changed the lyrics to poke fun at the Germans (e.g. "Run, Adolf, run, Adolf, run, run, run...").[1][2]
The lyrics were used as a defiant dig at the allegedly ineffectual Luftwaffe. On 13 November 1939, soon after the outbreak of the Second World War and also soon after the song was premiered, Germany launched its first air raid on Britain, on flying boats that were sheltering in Sullom Voe, Shetland. Two rabbits were supposedly killed by a bomb drop, although it is suggested that they were in fact procured from a butchers' shop and used for publicity purposes.[1][3][4][5][6]
Walter H. Thompson's TV biography I Was Churchill's Bodyguard rates the song as Winston Churchill's favourite as Prime Minister. Jock Colville, Churchill's private secretary during much of the war, mentions the Prime Minister singing part of the song.[7]
The rabbit in the photo is curiously intact," observes Dr Tait.『The fact is a rabbit was killed in the attack, but was eaten. Some people claim this rabbit (in the photo) is a prop – that's an over-rectification of history. The rabbit in the photo isn't the one the bomb killed.』Robbie Williamson, a photographer from Lerwick, had a keen eye for a shot. When he heard about the rabbit's death, he went to record the "historic bombing" for the purposes of a postcard. But his camera wasn't the only gear he brought. "He had a good eye for something that would sell. But before going north he went to a butcher's shop to buy a rabbit," explains Dr Tait.
A popular myth in Shetland is that the song "Run, Rabbit, Run" commemorated this event, as a skit on the ineffectiveness of the German air force, but this is wrong – the song was released before the event.
