Songfacts®:

• Hiil is a British comedian who had his own show called The Benny Hill Show from 1955-1989. This was a comedy song originally featured on the show.
• "Ernie" tells the story of a milkman's rivalry over the affections of a woman named Sue, with his nemesis being Two-Ton Ted from Teddington. The song blends slapstick humor with double entendres in classic Benny Hill fashion.
• The song's origins stretch back to 1956, when Benny filmed a spoof Western sketch built around the character. The inspiration was rooted in real life; in 1940, the 16-year-old Benny Hill worked as a milkman in Eastleigh, Hampshire, delivering from a horse and cart. He returned to the concept with a film crew 16 years later, framing it as a parody of the popular American Western song genre.
• Many assumed "Ernie" was a parody of Lorne Greene's US #1 hit "Ringo." Both are deadpan, spoken-word-style western ballads built around a larger-than-life gunslinger (or, in Ernie's case, milkman) archetype, but Benny Hill's song actually predates it by eight years, making any resemblance purely coincidental.
• Despite creating the sketch in 1956, Benny never performed the song on television in the intervening years. It wasn't until 1971 that he dusted it down, recorded it at Abbey Road Studios, and released it as a Christmas single, where it became a massive UK hit. The promotional film made for Top of the Pops showed Benny acting out the battle between Ernie and his rival, Two-Ton Ted from Teddington, for Sue's affections.
• Former British Prime Minister David Cameron told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)" is the only song he knows all the words to.