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"When I'm Cleaning Windows" is a comedy song performed by Lancastrian comic, actor and ukulele player George Formby. It first appeared in the 1936 film Keep Your Seats, Please. The song was credited as written by Formby, Harry Gifford and Fred E. Cliffe.[1] Formby performed the song in A♭inKeep Your Seats, Please. For the single release, the key was changed to B♭.
The song was so successful that George Formby recorded another version of the song entitled "The Window Cleaner (No. 2)". This song uses similar orchestration to the original version and it is about further things which were seen on a window cleaning round.
The song’s lyrics were racy for the time, with a risqué allusion to homosexuality ("pyjamas lying side by side"), and was consequently banned by the BBC from being played on the radio.[2] The corporation's director general John Reith stated that "if the public wants to listen to Formby singing his disgusting little ditty, they'll have to be content to hear it in the cinemas, not over the nation's airwaves";[3] Formby and his wife and manager Beryl Ingham were dismayed with the block on the song.[4] In May 1941, Ingham informed the BBC that the song was a favourite of the royal family, particularly Queen Mary,[4] while a statement by Formby pointed out that "I sang it before the King and Queen at the Royal Variety Performance". The BBC relented and started to broadcast the song.[5]
The record's sales were so successful that Regal Zonophone awarded Formby the first silver disc for sales of over 100,000 copies.[6][7]
Adance mix of the song, sampling the first eight lines of Formby's original vocals from the first version, appeared in the UK Singles Chart in December 1994 by 2 in a Tent, who were Amadeus Mozart and Andy Pickles (Jive Bunny/Hyperlogic).[8] The video for this release featured Mozart, Pickles and Stars in Their Eyes finalist David Clarke as George Formby. The Manchester-born poet, Les Barker released a parody of the song on Mrs Ackroyd’s Records on his 2001 album “Arovertherapy” entitled Reinstalling Windows, mocking Microsoft's repeated requests to computer users to accept upgraded versions of its software. [9]
The song is played in the 2003 PlayStation 2 game EyeToy: Play during the window washing mini-game.[10]
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