Colonel Bogey March

The "Colonel Bogey March" is a popular march that was written in 1914 by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts (1881–1945), a British army bandmaster who later became director of music for the Royal Marines at Plymouth. Since at that time service personnel were not encouraged to have professional lives outside the armed forces, Ricketts published "Colonel Bogey" and his other compositions under the pseudonym Kenneth Alford. Supposedly, the tune was inspired by a military man and golfer who whistled a characteristic two-note phrase (a descending minor third interval Play) instead of shouting "Fore!". It is this descending interval which begins each line of the melody. The name "Colonel Bogey" began in the later 19th century as the imaginary "standard opponent" of the Colonel Bogey scoring system, and by Edwardian times the Colonel had been adopted by the golfing world as the presiding spirit of the course. Edwardian golfers on both sides of the Atlantic often played matches against "Colonel Bogey". Bogey is now a golfing term meaning one over par.

The sheet music was a million-seller, and the march was recorded many times. "Colonel Bogey" is the authorized march of The King's Own Calgary Regiment (RCAC) of the Canadian Forces. Many humorous or satirical verses have been sung to the tune, some of them vulgar. In England a simple insulting use for the tune was quickly adopted, with the first two syllables bein used for a variety of rude expressions, e.g. "Bollocks", followed by "...and the same to you," and perhaps even more commonly "Bullshit, that's all the band can play, Bullshit, they play it night and day". The best known parody, which originated in England at the beginning of World War II, is "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball". A common Brusselian Flemish version goes and rhymes: "Charlie, I've seen your bottom; Charlie, it looks like a flying machine".

Noël Coward used the "Bollocks—and the same to you" version in a song from his 1950 West End Musical, Ace of Hearts, "Three Juvenile Delinquents." A foul "raspberry tart" noise was substituted for "bollocks," and Coward paid royalties to the "Colonel Bogey March" music publisher for using the melodic quotation.

A later parody, from a 1960s television commercial which used the melody, sung by schoolchildren in the United States, is called "Comet", and deals with the effects of consuming a popular brand of household cleanser.