You know, the whistling tune from WWII, that’s featured in the soundtrack for Bridge Over the River Kwai.
It sounds rather like an English music hall thing. Then there’s the words to the tune, which you can easily imagine British soldiers singing in a pub. Or was it just made up for the movie?
Wikipedia claims it was written in 1914. Michael Redgrave whislted it in *The Lady Vanishes * (1937), but IMDB lists it in movies before that.
Upon further review, IMDB no longer supports that last part.
so the words must have been a WWII development? are there any earlier words from the WWI period?
Wow, there’s a real name for the Comet song? Who knew?
“Comet, it makes your mouth turn green,
Comet, it tastes like gas-o-line.
Comet, it makes you vomit
So buy some Comet
And vomit
With me.”
Never heard those words before!
The WWII version I’ve heard is:
“Hitler, only has one ball,
Goering’s, are both extremely small
Himmler, is somewhat similar,
While Goebbels
Has no balls
At all!”
This is, of course, why the song is only whistled in Bridge on the River Kwai. 
I read some alternate lyrics for it in a book somewhere, can’t be bothered to look for the name at the moment:
Oh, yeah, now I remember - I think this was quoted in the book One Potato, Two Potato.
It probably didn’t originally have lyrics. Marches don’t tend to.
There’s a book titled Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts-the subversive literature of childhood. It has almost two full pages of the changes kids have rung on the “Comet” song.
I learned it slightly different than MissTake above.
Comet, it makes your teeth turn green!
Comet, it tastes like Listerine!
Comet,
it makes you vomit,
So buy some Comet,
and vomit,
today!
I play in a city concert band in the summers sometimes, and “Colonel Bogey’s March” is very, very popular, and not just because it was in “The Bridge over the River Kwai.” It’s a great, light march – not as sturm and drang as most military marches are. (I vastly prefer European marches to Sousa-esque ones.) “Colonel Bogey” has been played for decades by community bands. Not only is light and fun and perfect for summer, it really conjures up images of a small group of players in a bandshell for a community performance. Great addition to any community band’s repertoire.
It should be noted that another Kenneth Alford march, The Voice of the Guns, played a prominent role in David Lean’s next film Lawrence of Arabia.
Our high school marching band did a killer rendition of the “Hogan’s Heroes” march.
May I just say that the Greasy Grimy book is one of the best books ever!
We bought it a few years ago for the jump rope limericks and it has become a favorite in our home for giggles and snerks.