Songfacts®:

• It's true nostalgia ain't what it used to be, but so is plus ça change.
  
  Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be was a play with music - rather than a musical - based on a book by Frank Norman it had music by Lionel Bart. The title song was recorded by Max, who did very well off the songs of fellow Londoner Bart over the years. The same cannot be said of Bart. He faced bankruptcy and alcoholism, and died in 1999. Max Bygraves prospered and retired to Australia.
• This is one of Bart's more memorable songs, delivered in heavily accented working class dialect by Old Big 'Ead himself. It was recorded on Decca with a chorus accompaniment from the Gang Show, and directed by Eric Rogers. Backed by "When The Thrill Has Gone," it spent 15 weeks on the charts. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2