“Ooh, eeh, ooh aah aah/Ting tang, wallawalla bing bang!” They just don’t write lyrics like those anymore. Perhaps for good reason but, that snippet is from a No. 1 hit in 1958. More on that later but ...

THERE was once living in a village a young man named Ajaiyi. Ajaiyi’s father was a farmer and Ajaiyi was helping him in the farm until the father became so old that he was unable to go and work in the ...