"Mouldy Old Dough" is a primarily instrumental song by

Lieutenant Pigeon Lieutenant Pigeon are an English novelty musical group popular in the early 1970s, originating in Coventry. Career A spin-off from an experimental music band Stavely Makepeace, the group was fronted by Rob Woodward and managed by him and dru ...

. It reached the number one spot in 1972 on charts in Belgium, the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. Written by Nigel Fletcher and Rob Woodward and first produced by them under the name of their other band, Stavely Makepeace, it was recorded in the front room of Woodward's

semi-detached house A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family duplex dwelling that shares one common wall with its neighbour. The name distinguishes this style of construction from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced house ...

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, and featured his mother

Hilda Woodward Hilda Woodward (, c. 1913 – 22 February 1999) was a British musician from Coventry. She is best known for playing the piano on the hit song " Mouldy Old Dough", by the band Lieutenant Pigeon. Early life Woodward was born in Coventry, Warwi ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, in a

boogie-woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, but already developed in African-American communities since the 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually ex ...

honky-tonk A honky-tonk (also called honkatonk, honkey-tonk, honky tonk, or tonk) is either a bar that provides country music for the entertainment of its patrons or the style of music played in such establishments. It can also refer to the type of piano ...

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...

style. The only

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, ...

, 'sung' by Fletcher, are the growled title "Mouldy Old Dough" and "Dirty Old Man". When asked by Fletcher what those words meant, their author, Woodward, said he had no idea. It is the only British number one single to feature a mother and son. Originally released in early

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

, it flopped initially. But picked up in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and used on a current affairs programme, it became a

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from ''Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust or HIT, a fictional organization i ...

there, reaching number one in the Belgian singles

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

, encouraged by this success, re-released it in the UK, and with the backing of then

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

Noel Edmonds Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English businessman, and former television presenter, radio DJ, writer and producer. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK, pres ...

, it became a hit there, and spent four weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart in October 1972, selling 790,000 copies. In New Zealand, the song was number one for five weeks. The song also reached number one in Ireland and reached the Top 10 in Canada and Australia, but did not chart in the United States. "Mouldy Old Dough" (the title being an adaptation of the 1920s

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

phrase, "vo-de-o-do") became the second biggest selling UK single of the year, behind The Band of the

Royal Scots Dragoon Guards The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys) is a light Cavalry regiments of the British Army, cavalry regiment of the British Army, and the senior Scottish regiment. The regiment, through the Royal Scots Greys, is the oldest survivi ...

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

version of "

Amazing Grace "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn written in 1772 and published in 1779 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is possibly the most sung and most recorded hymn in the world, and especially popular in the Unit ...

". As of April 2019, Hilda Woodward's piano is an exhibit at Coventry Music Museum, where other artefacts belonging to the band are also on display.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

In popular culture

It was one of the choices of

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...

when he appeared on the long-running

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

''. In a 1990 interview, Norman Quentin Cook (later known as

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of Sampling (music), samples from eclectic ...

) revealed it was the first record he ever bought. Various cover recordings appear in multiple

V/Vm V/Vm was an alias of English musician Leyland James Kirby, used for producing experimental music. Although starting out mainly in the style of noise music, most releases under the V/Vm alias were plunderphonics, with some original compositions. ...

albums, such as the 1999 album ''AuralOffalWaffleTenPintsOfBitterAndABagOfPorkScratchings''. Since 1972, the track has played over the

PA system A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

at the beginning of

Oldham Athletic A.F.C. Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2025–26 season, the team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league syst ...

home games, which coincided with the club rising from the fourth Division to the

second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. The song was covered by British group Shades of Green, and featured on their first album ''Rockin' Poppin' Ravin, released in 1973 by Windmill Records, London (WMD 164 stereo). The song is widely regarded as the '

theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

' for the sport of

Banger racing Banger racing is a type of motorsport event in which Car, automobiles, traditionally derelict or totalled classic cars from scrapyards, are Auto racing, raced on Oval track racing, oval, tri-oval, or Figure 8 racing, figure-eight race tracks o ...

, where it is played at the start of races during the 'rolling lap'. It also regained attention in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in the early 1990s after its use in a television advertisement for Instant Kiwi

scratchcard A scratchcard (also called a scratch off, scratch ticket, scratcher, scratchum, scratch-it, scratch game, scratch-and-win, instant game, instant lottery, scratchie, lot scrots, or scritchies) is a card designed for competitions, often made of t ...

References

{{reflist 1972 singles UK singles chart number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand London Records singles Decca Records singles 1970s instrumentals

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

In popular culture

See also

References