He Had to Go and Prang 'Er in the Hangar (I)

DESCRIPTION: The pilot, "Forgetting all his teacher's good advice," "had to go and prang 'er in the hangar." He is referred for discipline. Each officer bucks it to a higher one until it is referred to the King himself -- who lets him off but says not to do it again
AUTHOR: F. H. Ziegler and J. A. Atkinson (source: Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook)
KEYWORDS: pilot crash wreck royalty humorous derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook, pp. 219-220, "He Had to Go and Prang 'Er in the Hangar" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Had to Go and Lose It at the Astor" (tune)
cf. "He Had to Go and Prang 'Er in the Hangar (II)" (tune, theme)
NOTES [194 words]: The source song, "She Had to Go and Lose It at the Astor," has a brief Wikipedia entry which says it was written in 1939 by Don Raye and Hughie Prince. The primary recording, by Harry Roy and his Mayfair Hotel Orchestra, was made in 1940, banned by the BBC, and "censured" by ASCAP. Which, I suspect, just made it more popular with the troops.
The parody is very close: In the original, there is a prose introduction explaining that a young woman is going out on her own for the first time, and her mother gives her advice on what to do.
But she had to go and lose it at the Astor
She didn't take her mother's good advice
Now there aren't so many girls today who have one
And she'd never let it go for any price.
("It" being a sable cape, but the song never reveals that until the last verse, letting the audience think of something much harder to replace....)
In this song, there is again a prose introduction describing the situation; here, it is a new pilot being told how to fly safely.
But he had to go and prang 'er in the hanger,
Forgetting all his teacher's good advice;
He made a landing slap against the windsock,
And sat amidst the wreckage in a trice. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: WJL219

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