This week’s music track is a little different as there’s no lyrics to accompany the video clip. The reason being that it’s an instrumental, unless you consider the occasional growling of “Mouldy old dough” worthy of being called lyrics. Mouldy Old Dough was originally released in the UK in early 1972 but it seems to have been somewhat of a flop. After reaching number one in Belgium, it was re-released in the UK and spent four weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart in October 1972.
It did somewhat better in Aotearoa New Zealand, where it reached the top spot on the 15th of December 1972 and remained there until it was overtaken by Lobo’s “I’d Love You to Want Me” in early February 1973. If I was to hazard a guess as to why it was so popular, I’d say it was an ideal track to accompany a relaxed family barbecue or picnic over the summer.
In the early 1990s, there was a revival of the popularity of Mouldy Old Dough when it was adapted as the theme music for a series of television commercials by LOTTO NZ for its Instant Kiwi scratchcards.
Mouldy Old Dough was written by Nigel Fletcher and Rob Woodward who were part of the novelty music group Lieutenant Pigeon. Woodward’s mother, Hilda, features on the piano in the YouTube clip below. I’ve also included a couple of the Instant Kiwi TV commercials which might help non-Kiwis understand why the instrumental had a resurgence of popularity in the 1990s.
Another Spectrum 
6 Feb, 2023 at 6:06 am
Today while writing a blog i thought about you. Glad to see you. How all is well in NZ.
When do you choose a new PM?
6 Feb, 2023 at 9:14 pm
Chris Hipkins was unanimously elected leader of the Labour party on 22 January and was officially appointed Prime Minister on 25 January, so he’s held that role for 12 days.
While Jacinda was an inspirational leader, especially in times of crisis (Christchurch Mosque shootings, Whakaari/White Island eruption, Covid response in 2020 and 2021, to name a few), she has not done so well when it comes to managing goals set out by the government, and in fact most of the aims and targets set out by the Labour coalitions of 2017 and 2020 have fallen dismally short.
Hipkins is relatively young (well, compared to me) at 44 years of age, and I believe he’ll make a better go of the post-covid recovery that Ardern could. It would seem that I’m not the only one with this opinion, as before Ardern’s resignation, the polls indicated that the Labour Party was way behind in the opinion polls and likely to lose around half of their current seats in Parliament at this year’s General Elections in October. In polls conducted since Hipkins took over the top job, Labour is now running neck and neck with the largest opposition party, (the National Party), in one poll and slightly ahead in another. On current trends neither major party could form a government, even with the support of their traditional minor party allies, and will probably need the support of at least one minor minor party to gain the government benches. But as they say, a week is a long time in politics, never mind the next eight months (until the elections).
Politics aside, and if we ignore the rising cost of basics (hard to do as we’re on a fixed income), we’re doing okay. We’re suffering from unusually high temperatures – the minimum night time temperature hasn’t dropped below 22°C for a week and daytime temperatures have been in the high 20s and low 30s. I confess I’m too exhausted to do much blogging over the past month – even reading blogs I subscribe to. Today’s Musical Monday was written several weeks ago and scheduled for publication today. To be honest, I had forgotten about it until your like popped up in my notifications.
7 Feb, 2023 at 6:53 am
I can sympathise with the heat. We are also having quite high temperatures here and added to it, dust. I can see today we have H30/ L13 but it is really hot. I am glad you are well though, just tired.
Thanks for the update on the political situation. I wasn’t aware there was a new boss. I only saw the news of the resignation.
Our food and fuel prices are on the rise too. Thanks to the war and drought.
9 Feb, 2023 at 8:54 pm
Always heard that catchy tune Barry but never knew the name of it, Thanks for the awakening.
13 Feb, 2023 at 8:04 am
This was another fascinating trip into the past. But I don’t remember it on the pop charts here in Toronto. Instrumental pieces occasionally showed up there, and I almost always liked them – I surely would have liked Mouldy Old Dough and remembered it – so I suspect it never reached us. I used to think we got almost everything the UK produced, but I suspect now that we missed a lot, not just from NZ.
13 Feb, 2023 at 9:36 am
Aotearoa was a little late in developing its own recording industry and it wasn’t until the 60s until it became a significant factor in local music. It wasn’t untill many years later that I discovered that many of the hits here by local artists were covers of hits by less famous artists in other parts of the world. YouTube has brought to my attention many songs that I had thought were NZ originals were actually international hits by other artists. In most cases I still prefer the Kiwi version, perhaps because I’m more familiar with it.