Mad Dogs and Englishmen (song) Mad Dogs and Englishmen (song) "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" is a song written by Noël Coward and first performed in "The Third Little Show" at the Music Box Theatre, New York, on 1 June 1931, by Beatrice Lillie. The following year it was used in the revue "Words and Music" and also released in a "studio version". It then became a signature feature in Coward's cabaret act. The song is especially known for the line "Only Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun" with which most verses begin and end. According to Sheridan Morley, Coward wrote the
The Face upon the Barroom Floor him off to the side of the gathering, where one woman names the poem. Smitty says, "Glad someone recognized it." (In the song Leon Russell wrote memorializing the tour, "The Ballad of Mad Dogs & Englishmen," which plays during the film credits, Russell sings, "The bus is here, bring the beer. Sherman's reading Shakespeare," though the poem is of course not by Shakespeare.) The Face upon the Barroom Floor "The Face upon the Barroom Floor", aka "The Face on the Floor" and "The Face on the Barroom Floor", is a poem originally written by the poet John Henry Titus in