The scenery may vary, but most songs travel the same basic path to the top of the charts: a professional band or singer has a dream and they play gigs and work to get a record deal; they write a bunch of songs, record them, and pick the best one for a single; they tour to promote that single and it hits the charts.

That’s not exactly what happened here. So what’s it all about, Alfie? Well, I’ll tell you.

A new sitcom debuted in the UK in 1974 called It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum (that’s British for It’s Very Hot, Mom) about a company of soldiers stationed in Burma during World War II whose job entails entertaining their fellow troops by putting on shows. One of the creators of the series had been a part of just such a company (known as a concert party) during the war, so he drew extensively from his own experiences when developing characters and writing dialogue. It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum became a massive hit and everyone looked for a way to take advantage of the situation.

Two of the actors, Windsor Davies (who played the tough and always yelling Battery Sergeant Major Williams) and Don Estelle (who played the short, pudgy, and somewhat timid Gunner “Lofty” Sugden), planned to create a cabaret show centered around their characters, and Estelle, who possessed a beautiful tenor voice — which provided comedic incongruity based on his character’s personality and appearance — would perform a number of songs in between skits.

Estelle, who began his showbiz life as an aspiring singer, also hoped to start a recording career on the back of his newfound fame, and with that in mind, initiated talks with Walter Ridley, a producer at EMI Records. Ridley suggested they base an album around the show rather than on Estelle alone, and to that end they recorded an entire LP in one day at Abbey Road Studios. At the end of that day, they found they needed one more song, and when Ridley asked Estelle if he had any ideas, Estelle replied that he and Davies planned on a duet of “Whispering Grass” (a hit from 1940) for their stage show. After a couple of false starts due to Estelle giggling at Davies’s spoken lines, they completed the song in about ten minutes.

(Extra vocals, including the bobbing bass notes, were overdubbed by the Mike Sammes Singers, a group who provided backing for a number of British pop artists over the decades, as well as working extensively in TV and film. Beatles aficionados will recognize the name mainly due to their appearance on the song “I Am The Walrus,” where the normally straight-laced and traditional vocalists were asked to sing “Hee hee hee, ha ha ha, ho ho ho” and “Ooompah oompah stick it up your jumpah.”)

“Whispering Grass” was released as a single in the spring of 1975 and reached #1 that summer, in between the second and third series of It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum. The show would continue to attract millions of viewers and ran until 1981, but Estelle (with or without Davies) would never score another big hit. However, the pair did get their cabaret show off the ground and it ran successfully for the rest of the decade.

So keep gossip out of the jungle … with Windsor Davies and Don Estelle.

A couple of notes: Firstly, most Americans will likely never have heard this song or watched the associated TV program. As sung by the characters, “Whispering Grass” would have made no sense whatsoever to an American audience in 1975, no matter how lovely the vocal. (Come to think of it, I have no idea if this song ever gets heard in the UK nowadays. I’m guessing probably not.)

Secondly, anyone who is familiar with It Ain’t Half Hot Mum knows that it has developed a problematic reputation in the 21st century and the BBC refuses to replay episodes due to accusations of racism and homophobia.

Let’s go back in my own personal timeline. My family moved to Malaysia in late 1984 when I was 10 years old, and while I was happy to still find episodes of The A-Team available to watch, I was even more thrilled to discover a British show called It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum. As somewhat of a sitcom connoisseur — having watched probably thousands of episodes spanning 4 decades, even at that young age — I found this show to be one of the absolute funniest things I had ever seen and noticed nothing negative or derogatory at the time (but I’ll grant that kids often don’t look for anything beyond the comedy).

It’s an odd experience watching it now, some 40 years later. Some of the contemporary criticisms are completely valid, but at the same time, some are also too simplistic. This was a show of its time, purposely written with a worldview and language from 30 years prior to its creation. Some of the comedy shines, and some has dulled. Nothing gold can stay.

Except the music! And that’s really why we’re here. For me, it’s a sweet tune that brings back memories of characters I loved. Not half!