What the Dickens!
album by John Dankworth
What the Dickens! is a 1963 recording by Johnny Dankworth, accompanied by his orchestra and guests, some of the leading UK jazz musicians of the day. It is a suite based on characters and scenarios associated with Charles Dickens. It was recorded in London on 29 and 31 July, 7 August and 4 October 1963, and released as a vinyl album. What the Dickens! was bundled with Off Duty in a 2012 reissue.
“What the Dickens!” enters the record as album by John Dankworth. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what What, Dickens and album can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“What the Dickens!” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, What, Dickens and album provides the most credible route into that argument.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 10, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q7991610. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1963 and 2012.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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- Tracing reception history
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “What the Dickens!”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow What the Dickens! primary sources, What the Dickens! archive and What research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “What the Dickens!”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “What the Dickens!” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.