Born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, Eric Coates needs no introduction as the finest composer of orchestral British light music. He also had over 130 published songs to his credit, most of them written before he made an even deeper impression in the orchestral field. This, one of the most popular, has a lyric by ‘Royden Barrie’, a name that hides the identity of Farnham-born Harry Rodney Bennett. A writer of educational textbooks, he was also librettist of Quilter’s 1936 light opera
Julia (alias
Love at the Inn) and the father of composer Richard Rodney Bennett.
from notes by Andrew Lamb © 2003
