"The Window Cleaner" (also known as "When I'm Cleaning Windows") is a comedy song performed by Lancastrian comic, actor and ukulele player George Formby. It first appeared in the 1936 film Keep Your Seats, Please. The song was credited as written by Formby, Harry Gifford and Frederick E. Cliffe. Formby performed the song in Ab in Keep Your Seats, Please. For the single release, the key was changed to Bb.
The song was so successful that George Formby recorded another version of the song entitled "The Window Cleaner (No. 2)". This song uses similar orchestration to the original version and it is about further things which were seen on a window cleaning round.
Due to the songs lyrics being racy for the time it was banned by the BBC from playing on the radio. The corporation's director John Reith stated that "if the public wants to listen to Formby singing his disgusting little ditty, they'll have to be content to hear it in the cinemas, not over the nation's airwaves"; Formby and his wife and manager Beryl Ingham were furious with the block on the song. In May 1941 Beryl informed the BBC that the song was a favourite of the royal family, particularly Queen Mary, while a statement by Formby pointed out that "I sang it before the King and Queen at the Royal Variety Performance". The BBC relented and started to broadcast the song.
The song also appeared in the PlayStation 2 game, EyeToy: Play.
The song made an appearance on American Dad!, with brief lines being sung by Avery Bullock in the episode "Failure is not a Factory-Installed Option"
A dance mix of the song, sampling the first eight lines of Formby's original vocals from the first version, appeared in the UK Singles Chart in December 1994 by 2 in a Tent, who were Amadeus Mozart and Andy Pickles (Jive Bunny/Hyperlogic). The video for this release featured Mozart, Pickles and Stars in Their Eyes finalist David Clarke as George Formby.