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Little Yellow Roses

[Trevor Peacock]

British pop singer Adam Faith sang Little Yellow Roses in 1962 on his eponymous second LP, Adam Faith. It was penned by Shakespearean actor and songwriter Trevor Peacock (born May 19, 1931), and the arrangement is by John Barry. This version is rendered in a tinkly, staccato polka style, as if played on a Wurlitzer.

The Mudcat Café thread Songs in English about the Spanish Civil War argued that this in a Civil War song for which Peacock would have been a bit too young. Trevor Peacock commented (in a letter cited in this thread):

Around 56 years ago I was involved writing scripts, and then some songs for BBC TV. The pop world was in its infancy, and I wrote for, amongst others, Joe Brown, The Vernon Girls, Jess Conrad, and Adam Faith. I seem to remember writing Little Yellow Roses for a B side for Adam in about 1962. I wrote the tune and the lyrics, and John Barry did that particular arrangement, as I worked with him a lot. I hadn't heard the song for half a century until your letter arrived. I don't remember writing it for the Spanish Civil War specifically—it was a song for all freedom fighters really.

Former Witch of Elswick, Fay Hield learned Little Yellow Roses at Forest School Camps and sang it in 2010 on her first solo CD, Looking Glass, accompanied by Sam Sweeney on nyckelharpa. Her partner Jon Boden sang Yellow Roses as the 14 July 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Sophie Crawford sang Little Yellow Roses on her 2018 album Silver Pin. She noted:

This is a song I learnt from friends who had sung it at Forest School Camps. I'm not sure of its origin but strangely someone told me that it was somehow related to the English television show The Vicar of Dibley. I'm not sure if this is true.

Looking this up at Wikipedia, it turns out that this song's author Trevor Peacock was one of the leading actors in the 1990's BBC One sitcom The Vicar of Dibley.

Lyrics