Wot Cher! Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road

Sheet music

"Wot Cher! Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road" is a British music hall comedy song written in 1891 by the actor and singer Albert Chevalier. The score was by his brother and manager Charles Ingle.[1] Chevalier developed a stage persona as the archetypal Cockney and was a celebrated variety artist, with the nickname of "The Singing Costermonger". When first performed it was known simply as "Wot Cher!"[2] The song describes the sudden endowment of apparent wealth on a poor family.

The song's verse is in a minor key, and then the chorus moves into the relative major.[3]

It was sung and danced to by Shirley Temple and Arthur Treacher in the 1939 film The Little Princess. It is performed by street minstrels in the "Limehouse Blues" segment of the 1945 film Ziegfeld Follies. An abbreviated version was sung by Fozzie Bear and Waldorf and Statler on an episode of The Muppet Show.

  1. ^ Andy Bennett; Jon Stratton (2010). Britpop and the English Music Tradition. Ashgate. p. 104. ISBN 0-7546-6805-3.
  2. ^ "Wot Cher!". John S. Farmer’s Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes. Old Books.
  3. ^ "Knocked Them in the Old Kent Road". Mfiles. Music Files Ltd. 2014.