who sang "I've got a motto"

[maggs]

This is for the oldies, so if you are under 60 you might like to pass on to something less ancient.   I am looking for the name of the singer who used to sing "I've got a motto, let's be merry and bright".   Possibly performed on radio and in  music halls in the 30's or 40's.

Maggs

[Marsh]

This doesn't tell you who sang it and it doesnt seem to lead anywhere else but...

[Page 27, lines 15-16] Cheer up � soon be dead! Song commonly delivered by a comedian with a dead-pan aspect of solid gloom. Its chorus went:
�I�ve gotta motto �
Always merry and bright!�
I�ve often said to myself, I�ve said,
Cheer up, cully, you�ll soon be dead!
It�s a short life and a gay one!�

http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_constables_notes_p.htm

[Woodey]

Yes, I too can recall this deadpan comedian on radio (and ?TV) but not his name

You can download a full version of the song as a Word file if you Google "Arcadians, I've got a motter always merry and bright" and go to page 39.

I do hope that some other octogenarian can recall the name of this comic character

[stevekirby35]

The correct title of this song is 'I've Got A Motter' [sic!] This comes from 'The Arcadians' (1909) by Lionel Monckton which ran for 809 performances. Another famous song from 'The Arcadians' was 'The Pipes of Pan' ('Come follow, follow, where they lead, The merry, merry pripes of Pan')