FRIDAY MUSIC: Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra, by JD

This is what my parents’ generation listened to on the radio; Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra. I’m not sure but I think Hall might have been the man who introduced an element of whimsy into the music of the dance bands of that era which makes it easy to see why he occasionally provided music for the Goons or for Ted Ray as well as Kenneth Horne’s Much Binding in the Marsh.

Hope you enjoy his bit of time travel and leave behind the cares of this mad modern world!

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Every generation has its ‘own’ music which is usually incomprehensible to previous and/or subsequent generations. My own musical generation lived at the time of the ‘beat boom’ of the sixties. My parents did not criticise ‘my’ music, in fact they liked some of it. Their generation would listen to the music played on the BBC’s Light Programme. They never claimed that it was better than our modern ‘rubbish’ just that it was different. One of the names that cropped up in conversations was Henry Hall and I just listened and nodded and thought that’s probably what I may have listened to had I been born in that era. But curiosity led me to look for and listen to a selection of the music of Henry Hall.

“The BBC Dance Orchestra, led by Jack Payne, made its first official broadcast on 12 March 1928. The band had proved its popularity as The Cecilians, occasionally broadcasting from the Hotel Cecil. Given the title Director of the BBC Dance Orchestra, Payne moved his 10-piece band to the studio at Savoy Hill. His regular radio performances ensured his success, and made his signature tune, “Say it with Music”, a hit.

The BBC Handbook of 1929 acknowledged the importance of dance music on the radio and called it “the voice of something very typical of ourselves and of this post-war age”. Radio dancing lessons were all the rage, and the listeners’ appetite for dance music was huge. The BBC Dance Orchestra was soon receiving 10 thousand letters a week.

Jack Payne left the BBC in 1932 and was replaced by Henry Hall, who continued the success with another line-up of the BBC Dance Orchestra. Hall was followed by Billy Ternent and then Stanley Black, until 1952. The orchestra provided the music for many hit programmes, including The Goons, Ray’s a Laugh and Much Binding in the Marsh.”

https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/march/first-broadcast-by-the-bbc-dance-orchestra

1934 Vintage – The BBC Dance Orchestra dir. by Henry Hall

I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones – Henry Hall Lyrics

Henry Hall with the BBC Dance Orchestra ‘The Sun Has Got His Hat On’ Original 1932 78 rpm

The Teddy Bears’ Picnic – Henry Hall

Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?

1936 Vintage – The BBC Dance Orchestra directed by Henry Hall

Source: http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2026/07/friday-music-henry-hall-and-bbc-dance.html