Mouldy Old Dough

1972’s unlikely classic hit

It’s the oddest single you can imagine but there is something impossibly catchy about `Mouldy Old Dough`. It takes elements that you would never think might make a hit and somehow it works. A bouncy tune led by an old bar room piano, no lyrics except someone growling “mouldy old dough” every so often and a group with the unlikely moniker of Lieutenant Pigeon fronted by someone’s mum. Yet the tune is contagiously memorable and that piano has the slightest echo on it (possibly a result of two pianists) and you keep thinking; is this mouldy dough money or baking related? What is the song about?  Who was Lieutenant Pigeon and is he now promoted to General Pigeon? If you've never heard it, here it is...

Just the music...

Interesting Instrumental Hits from the 1970s...

Popcorn- Hot Butter (1972)

Probably one of the first electronic instrumentals a lot of people heard, `Popcorn` was originally composed by Gershon Kingsley of the First Moog Quartet on their album `Music to Moog By`. Born in 1922 in Germany, Kingsley was a pioneer of electronic music and in later life would compose for Broadway musicals. He lived to the age of 97!  Another member of the First Moog Quarter, Stan Free, re-recorded `Popcorn` and it became an unusual 1972 hit.

It is one of those pieces of music that seems timeless, it could have been recorded in 2021 rather than almost fifty years ago. The catchy tune is rendered with the lightest touch the sound resembling one of those old video game noises while the drums have the timbre of military snares. The production has a clarity allowing you to hear every element and it retains its allure of futurism even today.