Come Outside

Album: The Definitive Collection (1962)
Charted: 1
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The novelty song "Come Outside" topped the UK singles chart for Mike Sarne in 1962; written by producer/composer Charles Blackwell, released on Parlophone and backed by "Fountain Of Love", it knocked Elvis off the #1 spot and stayed in the charts for a respectable nineteen weeks. The song is a duet of sorts between Sarne and a then youthful Wendy Richard, who didn't sing but played the would-be girlfriend/conquest who Sarne kept asking her to come outside to see the lovely moon (among other things). Richard's replies including "What for?" were delivered in a broad Cockney accent by the Middlesbrough-born actress who trained at the same academy as Noël Coward.
  • Wendy Richard died February 26, 2009, succumbing to cancer - which she had beaten twice before. In a TV tribute broadcast the same night she said she was paid the princely sum of £15 for her performance, for which she didn't even receive a credit. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
  • An article in the Daily Telegraph May 9, 1998 about the music/movie producer Robert Stigwood revealed how the then unknown Wendy Richard was chosen to partner Mike Sarne on this song. It appears that Wendy was employed as a secretary for Stigwood at the time the song was being developed. To quote the newspaper: "From her desk, Wendy started lobbing sardonic comments in her native Cockney. Stigwood had the notion of including them on the record, making it a duet." Apparently in doing so he overruled the objections of the song's writer Charles Blackwood.

Comments: 4

  • Barry Anderson from Las VegasI remember Mike Sarne's "Come Outside song in 1962, not long before I emigrated (legally) to the USA in January 1963
  • AnonymousWill I what didn't have Wendy Richard on it the female voice was that of Billie Davis who had a later hit with tell him
  • Phil Worley from BerksireWill I What was with Billie Davis who later went on to have a solo career. her biggest hit was "Tell Him"
  • Michael from Bradford, EnglandMike Sarne was not a one-hit wonder. Although he didn't achieve N°1 status again he had "Will I What?" with Wendy Richards that went to N°18 in the UK, "Just for Kicks", that made N°22 (with a motor bike that sounded more like a moped) and finally "Code of Love" at N°29.
    "Will I What?" was probably his best, it was the funniest!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go's

Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go'sSongwriter Interviews

Charlotte was established in the LA punk scene when a freaky girl named Belinda approached her wearing a garbage bag.

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Heaven And HellSongwriter Interviews

Guitarist Tony Iommi on the "Iron Man" riff, the definitive Black Sabbath song, and how Ozzy and Dio compared as songwriters.

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Rock Stars of Horror

Rock Stars of HorrorMusic Quiz

Rock Stars - especially those in the metal realm - are often enlisted for horror movies. See if you know can match the rocker to the role.

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions Answered

Why Does Everybody Hate Nu-Metal? Your Metal Questions AnsweredSong Writing

10 Questions for the author of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces