The most celebrated of all the draughtsmen who created the music-fronts was Alfred Concanen (1835-86). Although his most famous portrait is that of George Leybourne singing "Champagne Charlie", the cork popping out of the bottle to dislodge the letters on the title, Concanen's more elaborate scenes, especially those showing the street-life of London, have long been valued collectors' items. Concanen's work is the subject of Sacheverell Sitwell's book Morning, Noon and Night in London. Discussing the illustration for "The Dark Girl Dressed In Blue", Sitwell compares Concanen with the Japanese master, Sharaku:

"His imagination worked in fantasy. There is no melodrama in Concanen, and only invention based upon possibility, springing in many instances from a mere literal translation of the words or situations in a song . . .".

As long ago as 1962, there was an exhibition of Concanen's work at the Museum Street Galleries. In the catalogue Paul Dinnage wrote: "Few aspects of art are so fascinating as those which contribute to our knowledge of l'histoire des moeurs - preserving with scruples that would have been regarded at the time as unnecessary those details of character, of costume, of milieu, of gesture even, of colour and atmosphere which were destined to have short lives".

A splendid example of this is shown at the Bodleian with a section devoted to "Costermongers and the working week", which includes Gus Elen's song "'E Dunno Where 'E Are". The song cover is by H. G. Banks, and shows Elen dressed in the uniform of a Covent Garden porter, carrying a wicker vegetable basket on his head.

The look of disdain on his face refers to the subject of the song, his former work-mate, Jack Jones, who has "come into a little bit of splosh". No longer working in the market, Jack stands alone, drinking Scotch and soda, wears kid gloves, reads the Sportsman and Telegraph instead of the Star and "'as the cheek and impudence to call 'is mother 'is Ma". In two of the three vignettes that surround the portrait of Elen, the high-falutin' Jones is shown puffing on a cigar, with a diamond pin in his cravat, and leaning out of a Hansom Cab; meanwhile, four of his erstwhile colleagues discuss the situation: "'E says as 'ow we're or right as fur as we go, BUT we Haint Hon a Par wiv 'im".

This song, composed by Fred Eplett, proved to be a big success and was soon followed up by sequels, "'E Dunno Where 'E Is", "E's Found Out Where 'E Are", and "Jack Jones, Esq. Late Covent Garden Porter". By common consent, Elen was the greatest of all the Cockney comedians, seldom marring his performances with the airs and graces that made Albert Chevalier, creator of "My Old Dutch" and "Knocked 'Em In The Old Kent Road", so admired that he left the music halls and went on a tour of American concert rooms. "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay", the song that gives the exhibition its title, was the sensation of the 1891-2 season in London. It became such a fad that its original singer, Lottie Collins, was engaged to sing it at four different theatres every night. It is still familiar, but its origins are curious and it is well chosen to represent the cross-fertilization between Britain and America that would eventually create the modern popular-song industry. No one knows who really composed the song.

Its American lyricist, Henry J. Sayers, claimed that he had first heard the melody sung by one Mama Lou in a New Orleans bordello. He wrote new words and introduced it into a Broadway "Minstrel Farce Comedy" called Tuxedo. Lottie Collins heard it in New York, and purchased the English rights to it. With new words by Richard Morton, she was given the chance to show off her skill as actress and dancer. The verse, sung in operetta-style, had her introduce herself as the "Belle of good society".

But when she heard the dance refrain, Lottie whirled and kicked up her heels.

When she made her debut at the Gaiety, the reporter of the Pall Mall Gazette commented, "I never saw the Gaiety so full as it was last night, or heard the pit so noisy.