Lily the Pink (song)

"Lily the Pink"
Single by The Scaffold
from the album L. The P.
B-side"Buttons Of Your Mind"
Released10 October 1968
Recorded9 August 1968
StudioEMI, London
Genre
Length4:23
LabelParlophone R 5734[1]
Songwriter(s)[1]
Producer(s)Norrie Paramor[1]
The Scaffold singles chronology
"1–2–3"
(1968)
"Lily the Pink"
(1968)
"Charity Bubbles"
(1969)
Audio sample
Lily The Pink

"Lily the Pink" is a 1968 song released by the UK comedy group The Scaffold, which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart. It is a modernisation of an older folk song titled "The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham". The lyrics celebrate the "medicinal compound" invented by Lily the Pink, and humorously chronicle the "efficacious" cures it has brought about, such as inducing morbid obesity to cure a weak appetite, or bringing about a sex change as a remedy for freckles.

  1. ^ a b c Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. pp. 121–2. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.