A crackly analogue recording made in 1951 is the earliest known example of a digital computer making music, say UK historians.

The recording captures one of the earliest computers to use short term random access memory playing God Save the King, Baa Baa Black Sheep and a short piece of Glenn Miller's In The Mood.

The Ferranti Mark 1 computer was built by UK electrical engineering firm Ferranti in collaboration with Manchester University, UK. It was the world's first commercial computer, and nine were sold between 1951 and 1957.

In 1951 the BBC recorded a musical performance by the machine for a children's radio show and also presented someone there with a private copy on an acetate disk. It is that disk that has now surfaced in the Computer Conservation Society's archives. more....