When I'm Cleaning Windows

{{Short description|Comic song}}

{{Redirect|The Window Cleaner|the 1968 British film|The Window Cleaner (film)|other uses|Window Cleaner (disambiguation){{!}}Window Cleaner}}

{{Refimprove|date=September 2011}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}

{{Infobox song

| name = When I'm Cleaning Windows

| type = Single

| artist = George Formby

| B-side = Keep Your Seats Please

| recorded = 27 September 1936

| released = 1936

| genre = Comedy

| length = 1:43

| label = Regal Zonophone

| writer ={{unbulleted list|George Formby|Harry Gifford|Fred E. Cliffe}}

| prev_title = Ring Your Little Bell

| prev_year = 1936

| next_title = Sitting on the Sands all Night

| next_year = 1936

}}

"When I'm Cleaning Windows" is a comedy song performed by English comic, actor and ukulele player George Formby. It first appeared in the 1936 film Keep Your Seats, Please. The song was credited as written by Formby, Harry Gifford and Fred E. Cliffe.{{cite web|url={{Allmusic|class=song|id=when-im-cleaning-windows-t172806|pure_url=yes}} |title=When I'm Cleaning Windows |publisher=Allmusic.com |access-date=24 September 2011}} Formby performed the song in A♭ in Keep Your Seats, Please. For the single release, the key was changed to B♭.

Following the success of the song, George Formby recorded another version of the song entitled "The Window Cleaner (No. 2)". This song uses similar orchestration to the original version, and it is about further things which were seen on a window cleaning round.

The song’s lyrics were racy for the time, with a risqué allusion to homosexuality ("pyjamas lying side by side"), and was consequently banned by the BBC from being played on the radio.{{Cite news| issn = 0307-1235| title = 30 songs banned by the BBC| newspaper = The Daily Telegraph| access-date = 2018-07-27| date = 2014-07-11| url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/10561878/30-songs-banned-by-the-BBC.html?frame=2787107}} The corporation's director general John Reith stated that "if the public wants to listen to Formby singing his disgusting little ditty, they'll have to be content to hear it in the cinemas, not over the nation's airwaves";{{cite book|last=Bret|first=David|author-link=David Bret|title=George Formby: A Troubled Genius|year=1999|publisher=Robson Books|location=London|isbn=978-1-86105-239-1|page=54}} Formby and his wife and manager Beryl Ingham were dismayed with the block on the song.{{cite book|last=Fisher|first=John|title=George Formby|year=1975|publisher=Woburn-Futura|location=London|isbn=978-0-7130-0139-6|page=36}} In May 1941, Ingham informed the BBC that the song was a favourite of the royal family, particularly Queen Mary, while a statement by Formby pointed out that "I sang it before the King and Queen at the Royal Variety Performance". The BBC relented and started to broadcast the song.{{cite book|last1=Smart|first1=Sue|last2=Bothway Howard|first2=Richard |title=It's Turned Out Nice Again!: The Authorized Biography of the Two George Formbys, Father and Son|year=2011|publisher=Melrose Books|location=Ely, Cambridgeshire|isbn=978-1-907732-59-1|pages=124–126, 159}}

The record's sales were so successful that Regal Zonophone awarded Formby the first silver disc for sales of over 100,000 copies.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PUFMCAAAQBAJ&q=George+Formby+Silver+Disc&pg=PT54|title=George Formby: An Intimate Biography of the Troubled Genius|last=Bret|first=David|publisher=Lulu Press Inc|year=2014|isbn=978-1291872200|location=[S.l.]|oclc=980520969}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.georgeformby.co.uk/alan_randall/memorobilia/list.htm|title=Alan's treasured possessions|website=The George Formby Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919130436/http://www.georgeformby.co.uk/alan_randall/memorobilia/list.htm|archive-date=19 September 2017|url-status=live|access-date=2018-06-07|df=dmy}}

A dance mix of the song, sampling the first eight lines of Formby's original vocals from the first version, appeared in the UK Singles Chart in December 1994 by 2 in a Tent, who were Amadeus Mozart and Andy Pickles (Jive Bunny/Hyperlogic).{{cite web|title=2 in a Tent|url=http://www.discogs.com/artist/2InATent|publisher=Love This Records|website=Discogs.com|access-date=9 April 2016}} The video for this release featured Mozart, Pickles and Stars in Their Eyes finalist David Clarke as George Formby. The Manchester-born poet, Les Barker released a parody of the song on Mrs Ackroyd’s Records on his 2001 album “Arovertherapy” entitled Reinstalling Windows, mocking Microsoft's repeated requests to computer users to accept upgraded versions of its software. ((Cite web|url=https://mainlynorfolk.info/mrs.ackroyd/records/arovertherapy.html|title=Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music))

The song is played in the 2003 PlayStation 2 game EyeToy: Play during the window washing mini-game.{{Citation|last=David :3|title=Soarman Cleaning Windows on EyeToy|date=2014-03-09|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZs1WfFVAPs |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/NZs1WfFVAPs |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|access-date=2018-06-24}}{{cbignore}}