Released 1960, 1989 Length 3:17 | Format 7" single Label EMI Top Rank | |
Genre Comic song, Music of Scotland Writer(s) Andy Stewart, Neil Grant | ||
"Donald Where's Your Troosers?" is a comic song about a Scotsman who wears a kilt rather than trousers. It was written by Andy Stewart with music by Neil Grant. When performed by Andy Stewart and the White Heather Group, it was a hit in 1960, reaching #37 in the UK charts and #1 in Canada. When re-released in 1989 it became an even bigger hit, reaching #4 in the UK.
Stewart wrote the song in 10 minutes while he sat, trouserless, in the lavatory of a recording studio. The song tells of a rustic Scotsman who wears the kilt in defiance of the shock this causes to polite society such as well-spoken ladies on the London Underground. The music supports the theme in its chord progression, which shifts from the double tonic of Scottish music to a V-i cadence more typical of highbrow music. As performed by Andy Stewart, a verse is also performed in the style of Elvis Presley to provide yet another amusing clash of cultures.
The re-release happened when BBC DJ Simon Mayo played the song on the The Radio 1 Breakfast Show in November 1989 and then responded to listener's requests for replays, "We were in the mood for novelty nonsense, so we kept playing it". Sonet Records then quickly arranged a deal with EMI to release the song on the Stone label as a Christmas single – a market in which novelty songs often did well. Mayo continued to give it lots of airplay and the song was #4 at Christmas behind Jive Bunny's "Let's Party" and Band-Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?". Stewart was not expecting this renewed success:
It was a great surprise to me. I was sittin' in the hoose one night and the phone rang. It was another record company, and he said "...they tell me you're aiming for number one at Christmas this year..." - I said: "You're Joking?" and I quickly whipped out my diary to make sure it wisnae the 1st of April! It all just happened very suddenly, and very strangely. It's one of these things that happen in showbusiness
The song was ranked 17th in a poll of the UK's favourite comic songs in 2009. It was performed as part of the opening ceremony for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.