Popular Song (from Façade)

The work done by William Walton on Façade when he was barely in his twenties - to create with the poet Edith Sitwell a uniquely inspired “entertainment” for reciter and instrumental ensemble - set him up for life. First of all, even though early performances met with as much derision as anything else, it made his name for him. Then, although it would be a long time before a definitive version was finalised, both during and after that process of addition and subtraction Façade proved to be a useful source not only of income but also of material for other works - the two Façade Suites for orchestra, two Façade ballets, a piano Valse, three songs, and even (in 1977) “a further entertainment” Façade 2.

Strangely enough, the number that has since become everyone’s favourite, Popular Song, was not in the original version of the entertainment but was written six years later for a performance at the ISCM Festival in Siena in 1928, where it was so much liked that it was immediately encored. Even in the orchestral version it is a sure-fire winner. With real Tin Pan Alley words - rather than Sitwell’s parodistic “Lily O’Grady, Silly and shady, Longing to be A lazy lady” - it would surely have become a popular song not only in name but also in fact.