Two Minutes Mr. Smith

Album: Something for the Weekend (1982)
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Songfacts®:

  • In a Songfacts interview with Radio Stars bassist and songwriter, Martin Gordon, he revealed this song was "an ode to Arthur Sultan, the Surrey mystic." Sultan is a character from 1978's All You Need Is Cash, a mockumentary that traces the career of the fictitious British band, The Rutles, starring Monty Python's Eric Idle. The Rutles are a parody of The Beatles, and Sultan himself is based on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who the Fab Four famously spent time with in India in 1968.
  • The song title is a reference to a lyric in The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's "Look At Me, I'm Wonderful," from their 1969 album, Keynsham.
  • Hugh McDowell of Electric Light Orchestra played cello on this song.
  • "Two Minutes Mr. Smith" provided the name for Radio Stars' first greatest hits album released in 1982 on Paul Roland's label, Moonlight Records. Interestingly, the song itself isn't included on the anthology.
  • This song appears on Something for the Weekend, Radio Stars' posthumous live album released in 2008, featuring performances recorded across the UK between 1977 and 1978.

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