"Hole in My Shoe" is a song by English rock band Traffic featuring a spoken-word midsection by Chris Blackwell's stepdaughter, Francine Heimann, in which she tells a little story about a giant albatross. It was released as a single in 1967 and reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart, number 22 in the German charts, and number 4 in Canada. Composed by guitarist Dave Mason, it was disliked by the other three members of the group who felt that it did not represent the band's musical or lyrical style. Personnel Musicians Jim Capaldi – drums, backing vocals Dave Mason – lead vocals, guitar, Mellotron, sitar Steve Winwood – Hammond organ, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals Chris Wood – flute, backing vocals Francine Heimann – spoken word (uncredited) Technical Eddie Kramer – engineer Jimmy Miller – producer Cover version In July 1984, Nigel Planer, who played Neil in the BBC sitcom The Young Ones , recorded a cover version of the song, which reached the same number 2 peak as the original. It also peaked at number 29 in Australia. His version featured Barbara Gaskin on backing vocals and was produced by Dave Stewart. References Traffic (band) songs 1967 singles 1984 singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Songs written by Dave Mason Song recordings produced by Jimmy Miller 1967 songs Island Records singles United Artists Records singles Musical parodies Psychedelic songs