Songfacts®:

• The music for this novelty song was originally used in a sequence for the satirical TV series That Was the Week That Was featuring the then-fashionable titular footwear. Lyrics were later added by Herbert Kretzmer (later to find fame for writing the English libretto for Les Misérables) for a recording by Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman, stars of the television series The Avengers.
  
  Released by Decca in February 1964, the song was not initially a hit, but a 1990 re-release peaked at #5 on the British singles chart in December of that year, after being championed by Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 1 breakfast show.
• Speaking to the Daily Mail in 2013, Honor Blackman recalled recording the song with her Avengers co-star. "It was a nightmare," she said. "Patrick had no sense of rhythm and can't sing. We had a couple of brandies and decided he would speak it. The producer tapped him on the shoulder every time it was his line. But it was very funny and it has followed me around ever since."