BABY'S BOTTLE
(TIME FOR BABY'S BOTTLE)

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(1950)
Ace of Clubs, 1950
Unpubl. Stewart's MS copy is one of his scrappiest, and it was later redone by Norman Hackforth.
Point Number, actually about perfume. It was one of the "floorshow" numbers performed by Felix and the Ace girls. There are two refrains in a fast, syncopated 2/2 tempo.

BACK TO NATURE

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(1923?)
CPA2  (1939)
Trio for men’s voices, originally written for The Co-Optimists, perhaps as early as 1923, but there's no evidence of their performing it.  It was later considered for inclusion in This Year of Grace (1928).
NC himself clearly held the song in high regard, judging from the fact that it was put forward for publication in CPA at least ten years after its composition.
It is a well-developed comedy chorus song that could relatively easily have its lyrics tweaked to make it suitable for performance as a solo.  It is the comic 6/8 tempo upbeat version of songs like ‘World Weary’ and ‘City’, displaying a more deliberate rebellion against notions of societal decorum and a yearning for the personal freedom of life ‘back to nature’. 
There are three verses of 16-bar Verse followed by 32-bar Refrain, all densely-lyric-ed.  The harmonies are a little static (it stays pretty close to the home key Bb) but with a moment of unusual resolution at the end of the second phrase of the Refrain. 
If the song was written as early as 1923, it is remarkable, for it has all the characteristics of the more mature 6/8 comedy numbers of the 30’s such as ‘Mrs Worthington’ or ‘Marvellous Party (albeit with less harmonic interest and movement).  It’s not bad even for 1928, come to that.

BALLET (THE LEGEND OF THE LILY)

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(1927)
This Year of Grace, 1928
VS, Music No.13 (Act II) 
Music only - no lyrics.
It is clear from the "Introductory Speech" prefacing the "Dress Plot" for this printed in NCSL that both this and CHAUVE SOURIS (q.v.) are take-offs of the then recently revolutionary performances of the Diaghilev Ballet.  The story is that of Flannelette, an arcadian shepherdess of the early eighteenth century, wooed by the shepherd Bergamot (Pas de Deux).  She's not very responsive. Six fairies then intrude - to Flannelette's amazement, whereupon a bugle sounds announcing the arrival of the evil Marquis de Poopinac, who is inflamed with love for Flannelette, and entices her towards a copse. Courtiers dance a Pavane, and prevent Bergamot from following. Flannelette rushes back on looking dishevelled, followed by the Marquis, who despatches Bergamot with his sword when attacked, and the story closes "to music of transcendental beauty".
Includes:
Andantino
Bergamot
Pipe
Pas de Deux
Fairies
Marquise
Pavane
Finale    
There are also a lot of small musical links of never more than a few bars duration between e.g. Marquise and Pavane and Finale. 

BALLETS

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(1932)
Words and Music, 1932
VS, Act II (Music No.15)
Contents:
1: Announcement (vocal)
(The music for this is the same as for the vocal announcement for THE HALL OF FAME and JOURNEY'S END)
2: The Club (ballet) (vocal intro - Announcement - into):
3: The Boarding House (vocal intro - Announcement - into):
4: The Creche, and Waltz (Chopin)

BAR ON THE PICCOLA MARINA, A

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early September 1954
Cabaret performance at Café de Paris, 18 October 1954
Beatrice Lillie in cabaret
NC in cabaret at Las Vegas
SA2 NCG2
One of the most taut narrative comedy songs ever written.   If there was ever a case to be made that Coward abandoned controlled reserve in his writing it is to be made here.  The tale of Mrs. Wentworth-Brewster's - what?  Downfall?  Late flowering? - is the natural apogee to all those naughty winsome girlie NC songs of the early 20s.  It is funny, and stylish, and lewd all at once.
The original opening words were "In a bijou abode in St Barnabas Road"... (see BD).  The word 'bijou' was part of a smart, high-camp language used by Tallulah Bankhead, Lord Lathom and Binkie Beaumont.
The song was inspired by a 1954 visit to Capri, a vignette of which NC gives as his spoken introduction to the song on NCR 38.
The Peter Matz orchestration on NCR 38 is worth listening to closely - very subtle and deft use of accompanying instruments.
NC later had to offer a very generous 25% of royalties on the song to Messrs. Ricordi for his (unauthorised!) use of a small extract from 'Funiculi Funicula'.
This song is among the thirty most-performed NC numbers (see Appendix 3).   
NCR 38: + Carlton Hays Orch./acc. Peter Matz (1955)
ONR 33: Beatrice Lillie acc. Eadie & Rack (1955)
ONR 26: Roderick Cook (Oh Coward!, 1972)
ONR 30: Peter Greenwell (1995)
ONR 09a: Michael Law (2002)

BASEBALL RAG
See Appendix 1.a

BATHCHAIR, THE
See ALLEGRO

BEATNIK LOVE AFFAIR

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See note on Appendix 1.b under GOLDENEYE CALYPSO regarding possible origin
Sail Away 1961 (Grover Dale)
VS of Cowardy Custard (& Unpubl. MS)
Calypso ballad.  The song is a “modern” pastiche, which is indicative of Coward’s whole approach to this early-60’s show composition.  This particular song is rather too obviously an attempt to be modern, and the colloquialisms and topical references in the lyrics (e.g. about the “Jack Parr Show” – meaningless to any non-American audience then, and even to most Americans today) have meant that the song has dated rather badly in spite of the fact that there was a little bit of lyric editing along the way which got rid of Jack Parr (see BD). 
The verse section of the song (“Why suffer from moral convictions…”) was originally written in a steady moderato syncopated rhythm in 4/4.  By the time of the production this had relaxed into a much more parlando 6/8, growing more naturally out of the dialogue which precedes it.  This is correctly printed in the CC VS.  At its third phrase it shows an abrupt Cowardesque keychange (from Eb into Gb).
The refrain section, all in steady-tempo syncopations, is intended to reflect a young, “hip” attitude in its music, with plenty of “beat”.  Again, all these rhythms were “tightened up” in performance and the CC VS reflects some of this. It enjoys a mature phrase-form with plenty of variety and growth, which could be simplified as musical ideas AA,BB,CD,AE.  The CD section does the same abrupt Cowardesque keychange (from Eb into a sort of Gb).  OCR 18 is orchestrated imaginatively, with little jazzy instumental and percussion breaks.    
NCR 43:  acc. Werner? (Apr 1961)
OCR 18: Grover Dale (Oct 1961)
NCR 45: + orch./acc. Peter Matz (Dec 1961)
OCR 19: Grover Dale (1962)
ONR 07: Tudor Davies & Una Stubbs (C. Custard, 1972)

BERGAMOT
See BALLET (THE LEGEND OF THE LILY)

BERTHA FROM BALHAM
See Appendix 1.b

BERTIE
See Appendix 1.b

BIRTHDAY TOAST

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(1946)
Pacific 1860 (1946) (Tudor Evans)
VS (Act II, No.13)
A sort of recitative in which Mr Stirling thanks his guests for coming and proposes his daughter's health. NC later shamelessly re-used Mr Stirling's music for the introductory verse section of WHERE SHALL I FIND HIM (qv), which has two or three recordings.

BITTER SWEET VALSE
(WALTZ AND TRIO)

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(1928/29)
Bitter Sweet (1929) (end of Act II)
VS BS, music Nos. 13 & 20
The vocal score gives this number simply as WALTZ (as have other sources) but it has also been known by this title, which we prefer on account of its clarity.
This music is first heard in the opening of Act II Scene 2, as we see for the first time the café populated at night time.  The music returns for the entire final scene of Act II, in which Sari is forced to dance with the abominable Captain August who then gropes her, and from which she is rescued by Carl who up until this point has been busy conducting the café orchestra, glancing furiously over his shoulder.  The music, obviously, stops at this point, and only the duel and Carl’s death remains to close the Act.  In itself, this is an unusual dramatic construct.
The music is a perfect Viennese waltz pastiche.  It is no less apt or pleasing a pastiche than any invented by Richard Strauss for similar sort of period atmosphere in Der Rosenkavalier.  The main theme comes complete with little decorative grace-notes, first falling by degrees and then balanced by rising degrees in its second half.  The whole is well-balanced by a contrasting middle phrase of much greater rhythmic and far less melodic interest.
ONR 01:  New Sadler’s Wells Orch. cond. Reed (1988)

BONNE NUIT, MERCI

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(1928-29)
Bitter Sweet 1929 (Ivy St. Helier)
VS
Pastiche naughty French nightclub song. Ashe on ONR 01 takes an unindulgent, vigorous, no nonsense approach to the piece and repeats the second verse - at a rush.   
ONR 02: Susan Hampshire + orch (1961)
ONR 01: Rosemary Ashe + New Sadler's Wells Orch. (1988)

BOTTLES AND BONES

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before May 1922
Nelson Keys and George Grossmith at a Newspaper Press Fund matinee at Drury Lane in May 1922
Music and lyrics lost
NOTES: All we know about this song is that it was "a brief duet" [SM1]

BREAKING IT GENTLY
See DUKE OF YORK'S

BRIGHT WAS THE DAY

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15 Jan 1946 [NCD]
Pacific 1860, 1946 (Mary Martin & Graham Payn)
Sep.Publ.VS NCSB
Waltz duet aria. The Diaries entry  shows clearly that the lyric came first with this song, and the music later and only after a struggle.  It was worth the struggle.  The refrain section is a classic example of NC's lyrical romanticism in full voice, with sweeping, lilting melodic phrases and shimmering sideways keychanges.  There is more than a touch here of the composer of Bitter Sweet, and with this in one's ears the production of the lush harmonies of the score of After The Ball only eight years later is not half so surprising. A slightly ungainly upwards  leap of a seventh towards the end of the second phrase of the refrain is the price paid for an otherwise satisfying structure of imitative phrases and phrase-lengths.   Bits of the music recur throughout the score of P1860.  It is a great shame that this song is not more recorded.    
OCR 13: Mary Martin & Graham Payn (1946) (also in 'FINALE')
NCR 29: Acc. Drury Lane Orch. cond. Mantonvani (Jan 1947)
ONR 25: Ann Ziegler + Harry Acres Orch. (Mar 1947)
ONR 14: Joan Sutherland + orch (1966)

BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE

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1930 [NCSL]
Cochran's 1931 Revue, (Queenie Leonard, Edward Cooper and Effie Atherton)
CPA2 (1939)
Mixed trio or Quartet point-number.  A neglected, rather good comedy number in fast 3/4 tempo which is really an early Cowardesque  6/8.  The song has (justifiably) been included in the recent Sheridan Morley Noël and Gertie productions.  It's about young rich people doing peculiar things, somewhat in the style of 'Marvellous Party'.  One line foreshadows NC's later impatience with modern art: "Our critics are often excessively rude,/ To one of my portraits they always allude:/ It's me, worked in beads, upside down, in the nude./ What could be duller than that?” 
ONR 26: Cook, Casson & Ross (Oh Coward!, 1972)

BRIGHTON PARADE

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(1933)
Music No.1 of Conversation Piece, (1934) after 'Prologue'
VS
Instrumental tableau. It starts with a 95-bar polka (BRIGHTON PARADE) ending with the direction "Exit Tart and Two Sailors". Then follows the entrance of Sophie Otford etc.(20 bars), the entrance of Regency Rakes to REGENCY RAKES Valse briefly,  then ENTRANCE OF CHILDREN (71 bars, all in valse tempo); all the foregoing apart from the first 10 bars is firmly in Eb. There's a bold keychange to Ab for a brief bit of traditional melody from a Lavender Woman before we return to the Brighton Parade theme again, which brings the scene to an end some 60 bars later when Paul knocks on the door of Melanie's house.   
ONR 06: Orch. Cond. Engel (1951)

BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES
(Also known as UP GIRLS AND AT 'EM)

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(1927)
This Year of Grace, 1928 (Maisie Gay + chorus))
VS
Revue Song.  A further part of the 'ENGLISH LIDO' sketch (q.v.) A rousing number celebrating the character and staunch Englishness of lady cross-channel swimmers, with a classic example of a 6/8 tempo refrain in music-hall style.
ONR 34: Mantovani orchestra (1947)

BRONXVILLE DARBY AND JOAN

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(1961)
intended for the US prod. of Sail Away, but not used; Reinserted into the score for the UK prod.
VS of Cowardy Custard
Point number.  Lyrically this is strong, but musically the refrain suffers from a lack of melodic and phrasal development, seeming to come to a conclusion before one is quite ready for it. The deliciously "bitchy" words are set to a deceptively gentle melody in a sort of slow-shuffle dotted-rhythm 4/4 tempo.
NCR 43 is the 'demo tape' made in advance of the show, and NCR 44 is an example of NC enjoying himself in his own work in a non-commercial recording.    
NCR 43: Pno. Acc. Werner? (Apr 1961)
NCR 44: NC and Joe Layton (Oct 1961)
OCR 19: Edith Day & Grover Dale (1962)
ONR 07: Patricia Routledge & John Moffat (1972)

BUBBLES
See DUKE OF YORK'S

BUNCH, BUNCH
See Appendix 1.b

BURCHELLS OF BATTERSEA RISE, THE

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(Possibly a while before 1945)
Sigh No More, 1945 (Cyril Ritchard, Madge Elliot, Joyce Grenfell and Graham Payn)
Unpubl.  The archive MS is in an unrecognised MS hand, which (as it is neither Robb Stewart's nor Norman Hackforth's, who did the MSS of all the other material for this show) may mean that it significantly pre-dates them. It is possible that the tune of this song could be the “waltz” NC refers to in an unpublished Diaries extract of October 12th 1944 as having been “completed” on that date, and started around the 4th.  Later Diaries entries definitely show work on the number concluding on April 25-26 1945.
Chorus song, all in brisk waltz-tempo, a celebration of the lower-middle-class attitudes and values.  In the existing MS, the harmonic underlay is not very well-structured; but the fault lies partly in the melody, which neither has a "strong" tune nor lends itself to straightforward harmonisation.
The archives preserve three extra unpublished refrains - quoted in full in BD (p.232)

BUSINESSMEN
See MAZURKA

BYGONE DAYS
See Appendix 1.c