John Cranko resident choreographer for Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet's 1950–51 season. For the company's Festival of Britain season in 1951 Cranko choreographed the comic ballet "Pineapple Poll", to the music of Arthur Sullivan (newly out of copyright) arranged by the conductor Charles Mackerras. Another collaboration with Mackerras followed in 1954 with "The Lady and the Fool", to music by Verdi. In January 1954 Sadler's Wells Ballet announced that Cranko was collaborating with Benjamin Britten to create a ballet. Cranko devised a draft scenario for a work he originally called "The Green Serpent", fusing elements drawn from "King Lear", "Beauty and the Beast"
Pineapple Princess Pineapple Princess "Pineapple Princess" is an American pop song made popular by Annette Funicello in the summer of 1960. It appeared on the LP album, "Hawaiiannette". "Pineapple Princess" was written by The Sherman Brothers. As a single, it reached the Top 15 in the three major US trade publications: Billboard, Cash Box, and Music Vendor. In 1964, the Quinto Sisters recorded the song as a single for Columbia Records and performed it on NBC-TV for Mitch Miller’s "Sing Along with Mitch". The novelty-rock band Barnes & Barnes performed a cover of this song on their 1986 album "Sicks". In 2014,