"London Pride" is a song written and composed by Noël Coward.
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Coward wrote "London Pride" in the spring of 1941, during the Blitz. According to his own account, he was sitting on a seat on a platform of a damaged railway station in London, and was "overwhelmed by a wave of sentimental pride". The song started in his head there and then and was finished in a few days.
Coward acknowledged one of the traditional cries of London ("Won't You Buy My Sweet-Smelling Lavender") as the starting-point for the tune, but he also pointed out the similarity with "Deutschland über alles", which he claimed was based on the same tune. It contrasts with many of the major-key, grandiose melodies used to celebrate patriotism, including God Save The King and Land of Hope and Glory. Its orchestration also contrasts with those anthems, employing muted strings and a celeste, rather than a pipe organ and a choir.
The music is used in the film This Happy Breed, including the closing titles. The song has since been covered by such notable artists as Gracie Fields. Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman recorded the song in 1998 for the Twentieth-Century Blues: The Songs of Noel Coward tribute album. Julie Andrews sang the song on her 1957 debut album, "The Lass with the Delicate Air."