It's Only Macbelieve

Harold Macmillan may be in demand for years to come--at record stores. On the strength of a long-play disk that was billed irresistibly as Harold Macmillan Sings, the Prime Minister last week seemed likely to become one of Britain's top pop stars.

The title was only Macbelieve. In his major speech before the Tory Party conference last October, the Prime Minister gibed at the Labor Party's fence-straddling on the issue of Britain's bid for Common Market membership (the Socialists subsequently came out against it). The opposition's indecision, cracked the Prime Minister, reminded him of the 1931 Jerome Kern hit:

She didn't say yes, she didn't say no, Shedidn't say stay, she didn't say go. She wanted to climb, but dreaded to fall, So she bided her time, and clung to the wall.

Macmillan did not dare attempt the tune, merely declaimed the words sonorously. But the astute owners of a London satirical sheet called Private Eye snipped the passage from a tape recording of Macmillan's speech and re-recorded it, with backing from a twangy rock-'n'-roll guitar and a swinging chorus. Though it was intended only as part of an esoteric mailorder LP, Londoners last week found the record so hilarious that they were swamping record shops with requests for it.

Spoofing Mac was also the rage on television. The once staid BBC, which has reacted to competition from commercial TV with racy vigor, brought nationwide complaints with a satirical TV revue called That Was the Week That Was. One of the most outrageous TWTWTW skits featured a doctored newsreel of Macmillan, making it appear as if he were saying exactly the opposite of everything he really said. Another had Macmillan telephoning the White House. Says he: "Hello, Jack, this is Harold . . . Harold Macmillan . . . Macmillan . . . M-A-C-M . . ."

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