All over England last week, people were whistling in pubs and dancing in ballrooms to a tune written by two old ladies. Cruising Down the River was No. 2 on the English hit parade. Its gooey lyrics:
If you will go along with me, we’ll travel with the tide
And I will always keep you on the sheltered side.
However rough the way may be, the waters dark and low
Through all the stormy weather I will always steer you home.
Cruising down the river . . .*
Cruising was written by stout, spinsterish Eily Beadel (who calls herself “officially 48”), a retired music-hall accordionist, and her chum, greying, triple-chinned Nellie (“Tolly”) Tollerton, a onetime actress of the silent films. Eily lives with her twelve-year-old cat, “Spot,” in Hammersmith, and Tolly Tollerton lives with her husband, who is a Swedish foot juggler.
The two met ten years ago when they were both billed to sing and play at a dinner in a conservative English club. They began writing songs which never got any further than the three-piece ladies’ band (violin, viola and piano) which
Tolly conducts at a decorous tea shop in Wimbledon. Last fall they wrote Cruising and entered it in a contest; it won first prize over 58,000 entries. It has now sold over 380,000 copies of sheet music, and earned £5,000 in royalties.
Eily still takes her crocheting down to afternoon tea at the restaurant where Tolly’s trio—which specializes in light classics—will play Cruising only by request. The two chums have already written a new Skaters’ Waltz, but, says Eily, “We’ll never write another Cruising. It was just a flash in the pan.”
* Copyright 1945 by Cinephonic Music Co., Ltd., 100 Charing Cross Road, London. Written and composed by Eily Beadel and Nellie Tollerton.
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