Pepy's Diary

Album: Best Of Benny Hill (1961)
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Songfacts®:

  • Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was an MP who rose to be Chief Secretary to the Admiralty, but he is best remembered for his diary. Needless to say, Benny Hill treated him with less than the reverence he receives elsewhere. This song, which he wrote, was first recorded in 1961 (with this incorrect spelling on the label) as the B-side of "Gather In The Mushrooms." It begins with a spoken introduction, a short dialogue.
  • The song is more than a pun on Pepys' surname, ie "naughty Samuel peeps"..."and it's all written down in his diary." Hill appears to have rewritten it several times, according to one fan, (Shawn of Moncton, Canada on his Benny's Place tribute website).

    The man himself may well have been amused by this ditty because as suggested here, the married Pepys did have a number of affairs with women over the years, including Deborah Willet, a maid who was some seventeen years his junior. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

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