Push A Little Button

Album: not on an album (1966)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Push A Little Button" was a surprise hit for the British composer Tony Hatch in 2010, not least because he wrote it in 1966! It was recorded way back then by his fifteen year old sister Ninette, and sank without trace, in spite of its obvious novelty value.

    Hatch himself said it was "originally intended as a gentle warning against accepting too much 'automation,' not knowing where it might lead us all." The punchline comes at the very end of the song with the implication that when someone - perhaps the President of the United States - pushes the wrong button, we've all had our chips. Bearing in mind that 1966 was the height of the Cold War, it is perhaps a little surprising that it flopped. The previous year, Barry Mcguire made #3 in the UK chart and topped in the US with (the admittedly much darker) "Eve Of Destruction" on the same theme.
  • By 1966, Tony Hatch had already made a name for himself in Tin Pan Alley with such songs as "Downtown"; bigger and greater things were yet to come, so he had probably forgotten this little ditty, and the accompanying video (which he stressed does not feature his sister), when the wheel turned full circle, and the song, which was originally recorded for Pye, was released as a download by Universal Records, February 18, 2010, after it was used in a TV promotion. The following month, Hatch appeared on the BBC news programme Breakfast where he related the story behind it. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

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