Lay Down Your Arms (song)

"Lay Down Your Arms"
Single by The Chordettes
B-side "Teen Age Goodnight"
Released September 1956
Genre Traditional pop
Length 2:36
Label Cadence
Songwriter(s) Åke Gerhard, Leon Landgren, "Anne-Caroline", Paddy Roberts
The Chordettes singles chronology
"Born to Be with You"
(1956)		 "Lay Down Your Arms"
(1956)		 "(Fifi's) Walkin' The Poodle"
(1957)

"Born to Be with You"
(1956)		 "Lay Down Your Arms"
(1956)		 "(Fifi's) Walkin' The Poodle"
(1957)

"Lay Down Your Arms" is a 1956 popular music song with music by Åke Gerhard and Leon Landgren and lyrics by Gerhard (original "Anne-Caroline" Swedish) and Paddy Roberts (English).[1]

In the United States, the biggest hit version was recorded by The Chordettes, reaching No. 16 on the Billboard chart.[1] In the United Kingdom, Forces sweetheart Anne Shelton had the major hit, reaching No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, and stayed in the Top Twenty for 14 weeks.[1][2] Initially the BBC took a dim view of the song as it might have encouraged British troops to 'lay down their guns', at a difficult time of the post-Suez crisis and the conflict in Cyprus with EOKA. The ban was soon lifted when many requested it on "Two-Way Family Favourites", a popular Sunday lunchtime radio show. Another UK version was recorded by Billie Anthony.[3]

The song was also used in a British television play written by Dennis Potter called Lay Down Your Arms, which was screened on 23 May 1970. The play is set during the Suez crisis of 1956.[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 27. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.
  2. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 63–4. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  3. ↑ Greg Adams. "The Magic of Billie Anthony - Billie Anthony | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
  4. ↑ "BFI Screenonline: Lipstick On Your Collar (1993)". Screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 2014-04-30.


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