Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice

"Cod Liver Oil an the Orange Juice" is a Scottish folk song written by Ron Clark and Carl MacDougall.^[1] It was recorded by Scottish folk singer Hamish Imlach and released in 1966.

The song tells the story of Hairy Mary, a long-haired Gorbals girl, and her dalliance with the song's unnamed protagonist, known only as The Hard Man.

According to the song, the protagonist meets Hairy Mary in the Dennistoun Palais, a dance hall, and he tries various chat-up lines, culminating in an offer to run her home, "I've got a pair of sannies" (sandshoes). In the dunny of her tenement, their love-making is disturbed when her mother goes to the cludgie, and he flees. Hairy Mary searches for The Hard Man, but he has joined the French Foreign Legion. She has a baby, whose father's in the army.^[2][3]

The song was greatly requested on British Forces Radio, but it was banned by the BBC for a short time from such programmes as Two Way Family Favourites due to its innuendoes and possible erotic content.^[4]

Irish band The Mary Wallopers released a version of the song in 2022.^[5]