The Fable Singers have long been lauded for their boisterous take on the Carlton Football Club’s much-loved theme song. But now, after 40 long years, the cobwebs have been cast off a forgotten reworked version of Lily of Laguna, as performed by Melbourne’s revered jazz icon the late great Graham “Smacka” Fitzgibbon.

Back in 1967, Smacka, together with Frank Traynor and the Jazz Preachers, recorded the Carlton theme song from within the confines of the 3DB Studios as a promotion for The Herald. It is understood all 12 Victorian club theme songs were recorded and released at that time.

Bill Armstrong, who has in his keep more than 500 of Smacka’s recordings, had no knowledge of Smacka’s rendition of the club’s song, which had a limited released on a 45rpm Privilege Record at 75 cents a pop, as part of a promotion for the now-defunct newspaper.

“Just about everything Smacka did I own. There are very few recordings of Smackas’s I don’t own, but that’s one of them,” Armstrong conceded.

But Smacka’s daughter Nichaud, then a girl of six, certainly remembers.

“I was born in 1961 and was 18 when Dad died. Being the oldest, I do have memories of that time. I was only a little kid, but I remember my Dad singing all the football songs because he was asked to do the recordings,” Nichaud, an accomplished vocalist in her own rite, said.

“All my brothers barracked for Richmond, but I barrack for Collingwood. Maybe Smacka barracked for Carlton, I don’t know.”

Though Nichaud remembered her father recording the Carlton song, she never did get to hear the completed version until the club recently completed the duty.

“Oh it’s wonderful to hear Dad sing the song. You’ve made my day. Smacka was just so loved by everyone,” was her response.

The Blueseum’s Jamie Sanderson can be accredited with giving Smacka’s version its belated moment in the sun, having uploaded the audio recording of the disc onto the www.blueseum.org website after snapping up the precious vinyl on ebay.

The A side of the recording features Smacka’s version, whilst the flip side carries a history of the club, narrated by Don Kinsey, and another version of Lily of Laguna performed by the Jazz Preachers.

The Carlton theme song was adapted from the original recording of Lily Of Laguna, penned by the British composer Leslie Stuart way back in 1898.

Whilst the Blueseum has a theory of when the Carlton adaptation was penned and by whom, its origins remain something of a mystery.

To quote the Blueseum,

“Carlton’s theme song has several different people who claim to have written the song. The one arguably with the strongest claim is that it was written by Agnes Wright and her cousin Irene McEldrew (Agnes’ mother was Dan Minogue’s sister Dorrie, so her uncle was Dan Minogue) the then coach of Carlton (1929-1934) and was written around 1929 to 1931 when Lily of Laguna was again a popular song in Australia.

Agnes lived in Middle Park/Albert Park and did have several Carlton players boarding with them like Soapy Vallence and Eric Huxtable etc. One day after training/or a good win these Carlton players “bemoaned the fact that Carlton didn’t have a theme song”. So Agnes and Irene composed the Old Dark Navy Blues (with these players?). Another claim is it was written by Jeffrey and Anne Hales.”

But Carlton’s last member of the 1938 premiership team, Don McIntyre, has no knowledge of ever singing the theme song after a Carlton victory, nor does Alex Way, a member of the 1945 Bloodbath team.

“Smacka” was born Graham Francis Fitzgibbon in Mordialloc in 1920. According to Nichaud, her father inherited the nickname as a boy.

“Dad’s father Frank Fitzgibbon worked at the races as a clerk for a bookmaker named Roy Youlden,” Nichaud says.

“Now Roy was always making up nicknames, and when Graham Francis Fitzgibbon was born Roy called him a little Smacka – a Smacka Smoderous . . . and no-one ever called Dad anything other than Smacka ever again.”

Smacka died of a cerebral haemorrhage in December 1979, two months short of his 50th birthday. He was buried at Brighton Cemetery where the epitaph on his grave reads “What joy you brought us all”.

To hear Smacka’s 1967 version of the Carlton Football Club theme song, click here.