According to Harris, the program derived its name from "a Tin Pan Alley phrase from years ago. When they got the first pressing of a record they would play it to people they called the "old greys". The ones they could remember and could whistle having heard it just once or twice had passed the old grey whistle test".
Although many felt that the OGWT had run its course by the time it went off the air, it laid the template for many successive "serious" British music programs such as The Tube, Later with Jools Holland, etc.
As of November 2003 the BBC has released two DVD compilations from the show.
The program's title music, with its distinctive harmonica theme, was a track called "Stone Fox Chase" by a Nashville band, Area Code 615.