How many songs can you name that have the title of an actual place in England? Well, there’s “Penny Lane” by the Beatles (we’ll cover that in 1967) and you might remember “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty which went to number two in 1978. The third example of a song named after a place in England is “Winchester Cathedral.”

“Winchester Cathedral” was the brainchild of Geoff Stephens. Geoff was born in 1934 in New Southgate, London and grew up with a rather unremarkable childhood. When he was an adult, he went into advertising, never guessing that one day he might get into music. Writing advertisement is similar to writing music and one day he answered an ad and hired on to a music publishing company. After two years of writing as a staff songwriter, one day he was looking at his calendar and there above the listing of the month was a picture of Winchester Cathedral. As he looked at the Gothic architecture, he was inspired to write a song about the cathedral.

Geoff Stephens was a big fan of vaudeville and decided to write the song in that style. He wanted the vocals to sound like Rudy Vallee. And so, he convinced Fontana Records to record the song. A fellow named John Carter is actually singing on the record. They called him a Rudy Vallee soundalike. The rest of the New Vaudeville Band are just session musicians that were hired to come in and record that one song. No one dreamed it would be the hit it was.

When the song became a hit, they had to assemble an actual New Vaudeville Band. The band didn’t last too long. “Winchester Cathedral is the only Top 40 hit they had, so you could call them a one hit wonder. They did have a couple minor hit, one called “Peek-a-Boo” and the other “Finchley Central.” Neither of those were particularly successful and the New Vaudeville Band faded into obscurity. However, they will be forever remembered for their one big hit, however, when for a brief moment they brought vaudeville back to England and America.

“Winchester Cathedral” entered the pop charts in America on October 29, 1966, took only five weeks to reach number one. Then the Beach Boys knocked them out of first place for one wee with “Good Vibrations” (see next article) and the the New Vaudeville Band returned to number one for two more weeks, making their run at the top three weeks.

This video not only showcases “Winchester Cathedral” but begins with their followup “Peek-a-Boo.” It’s worth listening to the whole thing.