The Dave Clark Five Are "Glad All Over"

Birthday wishes go out to the man who surely has the number one job with the Dave Clark Five, drummer Dave Clark... In the Sixties, as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones took turns in leading the British Invasion, only The Kinks and the Dave Clark Five came close to providing a third alternative*.

As this startling footage shows, it only takes a small group of cocky English lads to turn a stadium fairly brimming with the flower of English womanhood into a crowd of raving slappers - even with those teeth - which is surely not only the exact reaction they'd been hoping for but a pretty powerful weapon to have in your arsenal as well.

*Maybe Herman's Hermits - maybe - although they were always more popular in the US than they were in the UK...
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Gratuitous Brunette: Adam Brody

In the interest of full disclosure, I can safely say that I've never seen either of the performances - whether as Dave Rygalski on Gilmore Girls or as Seth Cohen on The O.C. - for which our birthday boy Adam Brody has become famous... Something tells me all that is about to change now that he's appeared in the Kevin Smith flick Cop Out, co-starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan*.

I have at best a vague awareness of him because a) he looks like that, and b) I've watched more TMZ than I care to admit, during which he could be counted on to appear on this red carpet or that with someone named Rachel Bilson.

Still, in conducting research for the piece I was pleased to discover that Brody has not only played drums for the band Big Japan but he's developed a comic book for Wildstorm Comics called Red Menace with his ex-girlfriend's father Danny Bilson and Paul DiMeo.

It seems to me that a person as well-rounded as that will continue to interest me, long after his eligibility for Gratuitous Brunette status has gone...

*Once my funding levels are returned to any level above nil, that is...
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Happy Birthday Tim Conway

Here we see birthday boy Mr. Tim Conway in one of television's all-time classic moments, doing what he does best - rendering the audience of The Carol Burnett Show weak with laughter and corpsing his costars in the process; Carol Burnett (dressed as Eunice) succumbs first, then guest star Dick Van Dyke, and by the end even stalwart Vicki Lawrence - who never, ever broke character - is nibblin' a fist...

Lawrence gets the last word, though, ending the sketch by asking 'Are you sure that little a**hole is through?'. At which point even Conway himself hit the floor; fortunately Harvey Korman was nowhere to be found. This bit might have killed him...
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Remembering... Charles Laughton

While you wouldn't exactly call him an oil painting - unless it's one by Lucian Freud - Charles Laughton still managed a distinguished career before the public as an actor on stage, in films, as well as on radio and television; the reason for this grievous lapse - allowing an uggo free run amongst the pretty people - was clearly his staggering talent...

Born in July 1899, during military service with the Northamptonshire Regiment in World War I he was gassed; originally expected to take over his family's hotel business, he began appearing in amateur theatricals in his home town of Scarborough, and in 1925 he was accepted at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Laughton's first professional stage appearance came in April 1926 at the Barnes Theatre, playing Osip in the comedy The Government Inspector, which later transferred to the Gaiety Theatre; his first film appearances came in 1928. He took his acting skills across the Atlantic in 1931, at which time he made his American debut on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in a stage adaptation of C.S. Forester's novel Payment Deferred. His Hollywood film debut was in 1932's The Old Dark House, opposite another looker, Boris Karloff.

Laughton's enthusiasm for America was matched only by that which he held for men; despite his predilection, he had a long and happy - albeit complicated - marriage to Elsa Lanchester. The Hollywood films for which he was best known - amongst dozens - are The Private Life of Henry VIII (in which he played Henry VIII), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (playing Elizabeth Barrett Browning's domineering father, Edward Moulton-Barrett), Les Misérables (as Javert), Mutiny on the Bounty (as Captain Bligh), Ruggles of Red Gap, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (as Quasimodo). He also had a go at directing; the result was the Robert Mitchum classic, The Night of the Hunter, in 1955.

Charles Laughton died on this day in 1962, having made Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent while terminally ill with bone cancer; he was interred in the Court of Remembrance courtyard, at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. His widow survived him until December 1986.
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Gratuitous Brunette: Stuart Townsend

Possessed of a resume so light its highlight* was his appearance as Lestat de Lioncourt in the ill-fated 2002 film Queen of the Damned (whose leading lady, Aaliyah, died before it was released) it's a good thing Stewart Townsend has a full-time job to fall back on - or, I should say, to fall forward on - namely, keeping leggy South African lovely Charlize Theron sexed up**. Birthday boy Stuart Townsend might just be the next heart-throb in hiding, if he can only get away from his buddy Colin Farrell long enough for people to start noticing him...

Given that he almost played Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it's only a matter of time before the rest of the world gets to see maybe a little bit of what it was Ms. Theron saw in 2002, during the filming of Trapped. Then again, Townsend recently directed his lovely muse in the film Battle in Seattle, which concerns the protests against the World Trade Organization in November 1999, meaning he could well make a bigger name for himself as a director before his reputation as an actor is even established.

*Although he did play Dorian Gray in the 2003 film adaptation of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
**Sadly, they parted ways in January 2010.
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Bonus Video: "Went With The Wind"

In what may be a perfect storm of a sketch, Carol Burnett and Company tear Gone With the Wind a new one; one wonders what Margaret Mitchell would have made of it all. Guest star Dinah Shore is luminous as ever, but it's Harvey Korman's wicked impression of Clark Gable that steals the show. I'm showing it here in honour of the world premiere - on this date in 1939 - of the acclaimed film version of the famous book.



Containing such classic comedy moments as the curtain dress (complete with tassle hat, curtain rod shoulder pads, and its own picture-perfect punchline: 'I saw it in a window and I just couldn't resist'), an energetic performance by Vicki Lawrence as a high-strung white slave who learns to whup herself, and considerable mishegas on an impossibly long staircase (such as aping Scarlett's tumble in the original), it's almost enough to make you forget what an unfunny place the Old South actually was.
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"To Be A Jew In The Twentieth Century" by Muriel Rukeyser

To be a Jew in the twentieth century
Is to be offered a gift. If you refuse,
Wishing to be invisible, you choose
Death of the spirit, the stone insanity.
Accepting, take full life. Full agonies:
Your evening deep in labyrinthine blood
Of those who resist, fail, and resist: and God
Reduced to a hostage among hostages.

The gift is torment. Not alone the still
Torture, isolation; or torture of the flesh.
That may come also. But the accepting wish,
The whole and fertile spirit as guarantee
For every human freedom, suffering to be free,
Daring to live for the impossible.
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In Memoriam: Muriel Rukeyser

Born on this day in 1913, poet and social justice advocate Muriel Rukeyser's first appearance in print wasn't in 1935 when her poem Theory of Flight was chosen for inclusion in the Yale Younger Poets series by editor Stephen Vincent Benét; that was merely her first published poem.

Unlike many callow young poets, who come to writing first then must experience the world in order to give themselves something else to write about besides themselves, Rukeyser was already well-acquainted with the world, first covering the Scottsboro case at the age of 18, then later working with International Labor Defense on their appeals.

In addition to poetry and journalism (her expose of the Hawk's Nest incident was proof that poetry could be more than just pretty words), Rukeyser also wrote plays and screenplays, a fictionalized memoir, and biographies - including one of Wendell Wilkie - all of which showcased the broad eclecticism of her interests.

An outspoken feminist and bisexual, she was a single mother to her son William in the 1950s, and there's even an FBI file on her; an apathetic Jew, her poem To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century (1944) was later adopted by and added to Reform and Reconstructionist prayer books.

Rukeyser died in February 1980.
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Pop History Moment: Naismith Invented Basketball

For some reason all of the other contributions Canadians have made to the world - insulin, the telephone, smugness - seem to pale next to basketball; I've never really understood why, but I think it may have to do with the fact that Americans especially took to the sport with such ferocity.

All of which leaves me wondering why some of Canada's more recent contributions to the world - same-sex marriage, liberal drug laws, did I mention smugness - have yet to be more enthusiastically embraced south of the border.

A n y w a y, it was on this day in 1891 that James Naismith oversaw the first game of basketball, which was played according to 13 basic rules laid out by him; the rest, as they say, is pop culture...
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POPnews - December 15th

[Baudouin, King of the Belgians, married Spanish noblewoman Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón in Brussels on this day in 1960; wearing Queen Astrid's 1926 Art Deco tiara and a gown designed by Cristóbal Balenciaga the bride here strikes an uncharacteristically Evita-esque pose. Though it was by all accounts a happy enough marriage, dynastically it proved a heartache, as Her Majesty would suffer five miscarriages but provide no heir; following His Majesty's death in July 1993 she has maintained a high profile in Belgium in support of the new king, her brother-in-law Albert II.]
533 CE - Byzantine general Belisarius defeated Gelimer, King of the Vandals, at the Battle of Ticameron.

1167 - Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moved the royal court from Palermo to Messina in order to prevent a rebellion against King William II's regent and mother, Margaret of Navarre.

1256 - Hulagu Khan captured and destroyed the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut (in present-day Iran) as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.

1467 - At the Battle of Baia, Moldavia's Prince Stephen III defeated Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, who was later said to have been injured three times at the battle.

1791 - The US Bill of Rights became law upon its ratification by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

1868 - Shogunate rebels founded the Ezo Republic on Japan's northernmost island, Hokkaidō.

1891 - The first basketball game was played; invented by Canadian James Naismith while a teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts, the game was apparently derived from a childhood pastime of Naismith's called Duck on a Rock.

1939 - Gone with the Wind had its world premiere, at the Loew's Grand Theater in Atlanta.

1941 - In temperatures hovering around -15 degrees Celsius, Nazi troops executed over 15,000 Jews at Drobitsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

1960 - Richard Paul Pavlick was arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the U.S. President-Elect, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier.

1961 - Adolph Eichmann was sentenced to death in a Jerusalem courtroom after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership in an outlawed organization.

1965 - As part of NASA's Gemini Program, Gemini 6A - crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford - was launched from Florida's Cape Kennedy; four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7.

1967 - 46 people died when the Silver Bridge connecting Point Pleasant, in West Virginia, to Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed into the Ohio River during rush hour; the ruin was demolished and in 1969 the Silver Memorial Bridge was opened to replace it.

1970 - The Illinois State Constitution was adopted at a special election.

1973 - John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, was found alive near Naples, having being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10th.

1982 - The gates connecting Gibraltar to Spain were re-opened on humanitarian grounds.

1993 - The Downing Street Declaration was issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.

2001 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened after 11 years and a $27,000,000 restoration to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.

2005 - The 2005 Atlantic Power Outage began, plunging the American Eastern Seaboard into bitter cold and darkness; owing to the seriousness of the ice storm that'd caused it, power wouldn't be fully restored until December 20th.
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"Cocktails For Two" by Spike Jones and His City Slickers

Spike Jones - born on this day in 1911 - was a musical comedian known for injecting sound effects into popular songs to often hilarious ends; it's a genre which isn't much in favour today, since its particular brand of absurdity is guaranteed to puncture pomposity in whatever form it may appear (be it earnest or glib, arrogant or modest) and we are living in very pompous times indeed...

Cocktails for Two was written by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow for the 1934 film Murder at the Vanities*; it was given the Spike Jones treatment, with vocals by Carl Grayson, in 1944. Lyricist Coslow is said to have hated what he perceived as Jones' irreverence toward the material, although surely his punctured pomposity was mollified somewhat by the massive royalties its release on vinyl earned him - as it likely would when Jones' version was used in a 2006 UK Schweppes advert, had he not been dead for 25 years.

*Still only available on VHS, ugh!
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The Death of George Washington

In September 1796 George Washington published his Farewell Address, one of the defining documents of the young republic; after retiring from the US presidency in March 1797 he returned home to Mount Vernon to resume his favoured profession, that of gentleman farmer.

His first year back Washington turned an unprofitable farm on the property into one of the country's largest distilleries, and within two years it was earning him a tidy profit*.

Anyway, Washington had always been a successful farmer, owing as much to his administration of it as the fecundity of the land itself; the plantation already produced cotton, tobacco, and hemp - as well as housed more than 100 slaves - why not hooch as well?

In 1798 his successor (and former Vice President) John Adams promoted Washington to the rank of Lieutenant General, then the senior rank in the US military (just as during the Bicentennial year President Gerald Ford would posthumously promote him to General of the Armies, so 'that no officer of the United States Army should outrank' him).

The following December Washington spent a blustery day surveying his property, after which he sat down to supper in his wet clothes; two days later, on this day in 1799, the Father of His Country was dead at the age of 67, attended by his best friend Dr. James Craik and his secretary Tobias Lear V. Within three years, in May 1802, Lady Washington would join him.

In March 2007 a restored version of that distillery was reopened on the grounds of Mount Vernon National Historic Landmark.

*This is what former Presidents used to do to make money in the olden days, before golf and whoring their dreadful memoirs around the lecture circuit for a few years became de rigeur.
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Remembering... Myrna Loy

One of Hollywood's brightest lights was dimmed on this day in 1993, when Myrna Loy called it a wrap...

Once considered exotic by Hollywood standards, during the silent era Loy often played vamps, slathered in heavy makeup and slinking around wearing a gold lame kimono; by the early 1930s, though, the studio brains had started letting her be herself onscreen - a wholesome all-American comedienne - at which time her star began to rise.

In 1934 she was cast to play Nora Charles, heroine of The Thin Man - from the popular novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett - opposite William Powell; in the character she found her perfect balance of sexy and sassy, and in the costar she found the ideal foil. Suddenly, after 80 films, she was an overnight success.

In all, Loy and Powell would star together in a total of 14 films - including six Thin Man movies - making them Hollywood's most durable pair; the time it would take you to watch their onscreen marriage is longer than many of the actual marriages attempted in "real life" by members of the movie colony.

With the outbreak of World War II she acted less, preferring charitable works; what appearances she did make in her later career were memorable, though, such as in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). Born in August 1905, Myrna Loy played her final scene in 1991, when she accepted the Honorary Academy Award via film clip from her home in New York City.
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"Panis Angelicus" by Anthony Way

He's performed for hundreds of thousands of people since the age of nine including HM The Queen and the rest of the Royal Family; now a wily veteran of the classical music industry, Anthony Way (born on this day in 1982) is seen here near the beginning of his career, singing this Easter favourite (included here as part of my concerted effort, War on Christmas 2009 - Christmas, Easter, what's the diff, right?), Panis Angelicus.
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Pop History Moment: The Death of Albert, Prince Consort

Their marriage in February 1840 has long been considered one of the genuine love stories of the English monarchy; in contrast to the prim image concocted for her by the era to which she has given her name, there was at least one Victorian woman capable of a carnal attraction to her husband, and that woman was the Queen herself.

Albert, Prince Consort's legacy while alive was profound - they had nine children together for a start, children whose children and grandchildren would eventually populate half the thrones of Europe - but the legacy left by his early death was in many ways more profound still.

Victoria's grief at the loss of her Consort - on this day in 1861 - would reverberate through the entire Empire; initially received begrudgingly with lukewarm suspicion at best, his commitment to the furtherance of science and technology, charitable nature, removal of the British Royal Family from politics, and unique perspective on international relations (as exemplified by his commitment to the Great Exhibition of 1851) did as much to make Britain the foremost world power of the era as the Royal Navy and as they did to secure his own place in history.

Following his death, memorials to him would abound, not the least of which - Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall - are among the top attractions in London.
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In Memoriam: George VI

His Royal Highness The Prince Albert, Duke of York was never supposed to become King of England; it was only thanks to his feckless older brother Edward VIII (and the scandalous private life of his younger brother Prince George, Duke of Kent - not to mention the scandalous dullness of his other younger brother Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester) that he was thrust into the job in the first place. It was thanks to his own sense of duty, though, (as aided by the determination of his Queen as he was by the four packs of cigarettes he smoked each day) that he was even able to do his level best in helping the British Empire to take down Hitler.

Since the Prince born on this day in 1895 at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate shared his birthday with the 34th anniversary of his great-grandfather's death - a day which was still being marked at his great-grandmother's court with heavy mourning - he was given the name Albert, although the family always referred to him as Bertie. A shy child, prone to tears, he was treated badly because of his left-handedness, and had knock knees which needed correction with splints; for some reason he developed a stammer early in life. None of it endeared him to his bellicose and demanding father, although his equally formidable mother was sympathetic in her own utterly undemonstrative way.

In the tried-and-true method of toughening up Princes, Bertie spent his formative years in the military; he even saw action during World War I aboard HMS Collingwood in the Battle of Jutland... After which he was forced to forego any further toughening up due to a duodenal ulcer - still, he gave it a better try than his own grandson Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, who quit the Royal Marines after four months.

In April 1923 the hapless Prince turned his luck around when he finally persuaded Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon to marry him, at Westminster Abbey, following a two-year pursuit; as we have seen, the men of the House of Windsor are either made or broken by their choice of wives, and the newly created Duke of York was now made in the shade (thanks to an eerie radiance cast by his new Duchess). In April 1926 came the first of his little Princesses, Elizabeth, followed in 1930 by Margaret Rose; as a husband and father Bertie set a new standard as far as the doting royal male was concerned.

The Abdication Crisis thrust Bertie from the back of the Buckingham Palace balcony to the front in December 1936; no longer the Duke of York he was now George VI, and it was through England's darkest hours that his light would come to shine its brightest. He battled his stammer back in order to address his people prior to his coronation in May 1937 (winning that war before the outbreak of another, even greater one), remained in London throughout The Blitz, and let Churchill do his thing (winning the war tactically) while he did the King's job of boosting morale. England expected every man to do his duty, and her King certainly kept up his end of the bargain.

It all took its toll, though, and George VI died, too young, in February 1952.  He was just 56.

Currently the life of George VI - particularly the struggle he faced with his stammer - is getting the big screen treatment, in The King's Speech; as directed by Tom Hooper from a script by David Seidler, it features genuine heart-throb Colin Firth as the undaunted monarch, Helena Bonham Carter as his formidable queen, and Geoffrey Rush as Australian-born speech therapist Lionel Logue amongst an all-star cast.
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"London Calling" by The Clash

London Calling, the title track of a double album released on this day in 1979 by The Clash, is a howling, wholly epic punk aria, a screeching screed, a bellowing from the belly of the beast - in this case, the early days of the Thatcher government. If the times demanded bitches who knew how to set things straight in both politics and the arts, this is the sound of their battle...

Naturally, the powers-that-be won't let me post the song's excellent early video, so I had to settle for this live performance, which is still pretty good. If you prefer the original, you know what to do.
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POPnews - December 14th

[With Joe Strummer's howls and yelps and bloody great lungsful of primal screamery The Clash shoved punk rock's culture war against the Establishment even further into the mainstream with the UK release of London Calling; the title track's guitars grind like an abrupt changing of gears, pelleting the listener with drum beats, the whole thing driven by a bass line that swoops and soars with rumbling discontent. It's no coincidence that it came out the same year Margaret Thatcher was first elected Prime Minister.]

1287 - St. Lucia's Flood killed between 50,000 and 80,000 in Holland when the seawall holding back the Zuider Zee collapsed the day after St. Lucia's Day.

1542 - Mary, Queen of Scots, ascended the throne following the death of her father, James V; she was just six days old.

1751 - The Theresian Military Academy - the first such school in the world - was founded by Austria's Empress Maria Theresa at the castle in Wiener Neustadt.

1782 - The Montgolfier Brothers succeeded in lifting a hot-air balloon off the ground during their first test flight; they succeeded so well, in fact, they lost control of the balloon, which drifted for more than 2 km before crashing.

1819 - Alabama became the 22nd US state.

1836 - The Toledo War - declared between Ohio and Michigan over a strip of land along their joint border dubbed the Toledo Strip, containing such prime real estate as Toledo - unofficially ended following the intercession of US President Andrew Jackson.

1896 - Glasgow's subway opened.

1903 - The Wright Brothers made their first attempt to fly the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1907 - The schooner Thomas W. Lawson ran aground and foundered near the Hellweather's Reef within the Scilly Isles in a gale; the pilot and 15 seamen died.

1911 - Roald Amundsen's team - comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting - became the first to reach the South Pole.

1914 - Lisandro de la Torre and others founded the Democratic Progressist Party (the Partido Demócrata Progresista, or PDP) at the Hotel Savoy in Buenos Aires.

1918 - Finland's King Väinö I renounced the throne of the Kingdom of Finland, having only been elected by the Eduskunta little more than two months earlier; before that he was just plain old Prince Charles Frederick of Hesse.

1962 - Mariner 2 flew past Venus.

1964 - The US Supreme Court ruled in the case of Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States that Congress could use its Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination, an important victory for the American Civil Rights Movement.

1972 - Eugene Cernan became the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt completed the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of Apollo 17; it would be the last manned mission launched by NASA's Apollo Program to the moon in the 20th century.

1979 - The Clash released their epic double album London Calling in the UK.

1981 - Israel's Knesset passed The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights - which did wonders towards easing tensions in the Arab-Israeli Conflict*.

*NOT!

2003 - Former Pakistani Generalissimo Pervez Musharaf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt near Rawalpindi.

2004 - France's Millau Viaduct, currently the highest bridge in the world, was officially opened.
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"Chim Chim Cher-ee" by Dick Van Dyke

It's hard to believe today - when one can barely get through a quiz, panel, or chat show without one's ears being assailed by the curiously estuarian tones of the seemingly ubiquitous mockney - but back in the day when one wanted to hear a bad version of an unattractive accent one had to wait for this to turn up on telly...

Chim Chim Cher-ee - at least as performed by Dick Van Dyke in the 1964 film Mary Poppins - is a curious blend of magic and bullshit; without his presence I feel certain the magic would be gone. The only thing that redeems the song in my opinion isn't the Best Song Oscar it earned but the presence of Dick Van Dyke himself - one of the most charming performers to grace whatever the age that came right after the Golden Age of Television was called*, when his classic sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show was destination television.

Today is Dick Van Dyke's 85th birthday, and here's t'many more guv'nor!

*The Silver Age?
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Remembering... Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

Born on this day in 1906, the much-loved Princess Marina was the last foreign-born Princess to marry into the British Royal Family; already a Princess of both Greece and Denmark she became a Princess of Great Britain when she married the current Queen's handsome and dashing uncle Prince George, The Duke of Kent, in November 1934.

Together they had three children: Edward, the current Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra, the Honourable Lady Ogilvy, and Prince Michael of Kent, who famously married a monster. Throughout the years of their brief marriage the Duke and Duchess cut a pair of dashing figures in London society, during which time she was frequently photographed by Cecil Beaton.

Following her husband's untimely death in August 1942, Princess Marina maintained a steady calendar of royal duties, the highlight of which was the celebration of the independence of Ghana in March 1957, which she attended on behalf of her niece. She also attended the independence of Botswana in September 1966, and so grateful were the people of the capital Gaborone that they named their brand new hospital after her. For many years Her Royal Highness was president of Wimbledon's All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

The year after her August 1968 death she was mentioned in a song by The Kinks; She's Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina appears in their 1969 rock opera Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire).
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