"I Can't Tell a Waltz from a Tango" is a popular song written by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning and published in 1954.
The best known version in the United States was recorded by Patti Page; the best-known version in the United Kingdom by Alma Cogan. Both were recorded in 1954.
The Page recording was released by Mercury Records as catalog number 70458, with the flip side "The Mama Doll Song." It entered the Billboard chart on October 16, 1954 at #30, the only week it charted.
The recording by Alma Cogan was released in 1954 by HMV as a 78rpm recording (catalog number B10786) and a 45rpm recording (catalog number 7M 271). It reached #6 on the UK charts. The flip side was "Christmas Cards".
It was often used in the BBC comedy radio programme, The Goon Show, by Ray Ellington and his quartet. This performance of it added extra, Goons-style humour, with members of the cast joining in.
The Pee Wee King Orchestra recorded the song, reviewed as a "right smooth job" in the same month as the Patti Page charting of the song.
Famous quotes containing the word waltz:
“When we were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the Europeans. How many of us were taught the songs of the Wanyamwezi or of the Wahehe? Many of us have learnt to dance the rumba, or the cha cha, to rock and roll and to twist and even to dance the waltz and foxtrot. But how many of us can dance, or have even heard of the gombe sugu, the mangala, nyang’umumi, kiduo, or lele mama?”
—Julius K. Nyerere (b. 1922)