Pineapple Poll is a ballet in one act and three scenes with a libretto and choreography by John Cranko commissioned by the Sadler's Wells theater, meant to coincide with the Festival of Britain. Cranko based the scenario on one of Gilbert's "Bab Ballads," entitled The Bumboat Woman's Story. Gilbert's "Bab Ballads" were short comic "plays" written for the British satirical magazine, Fun. "Bab," which is short for "Baby" (pronounced "Babby"), was Gilbert's pseudonym, originally appended to drawings and later to innumerable, brief ballads, appearing mainly in the 1860s and 1870s.

Conductor Sir Charles Mackerras gleaned excerpts of Sullivan's music from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. This was made possible by the expiration in 1950 of the copyright on Sullivan's works. First performed at the Sadler's Wells in March 1951, Pineapple Poll became an immediate sensation and the production was given regularly into the late 1950s by both the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells. In a similar manner, Mackerras has also arranged the ballet, The Lady and the Fool, from music by Sullivan.

The plot of Pineapple Poll revolves around Pineapple Poll and her colleagues, who are all madly in love with the captain of the good ship H.M.S. Hot Cross Bun. In order to board the ship, they disguise themselves in sailors' clothes, a fact that is not revealed to the audience until near the end of the ballet.

Mackerras came to know the works of Gilbert and Sullivan while he was an oboist at the Sydney Theatre. After playing a piano reduction of Offenbach's Gay Parisienne for a ballet performance, it occurred to him that an arrangement of Sullivan's music would also lend itself to a ballet setting. Mackerras describes his arrangement of Sullivan's music as "a patchwork quilt of tunes from most of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Every bar of Pineapple Poll, even the short bridge passages, is taken from some opera or other." Melodies from the various operettas intertwine in such a way that one follows the other in rapid succession. Employing a much larger ensemble than Sullivan did (three each of woodwind and trumpets, plus a large percussion section), Mackerras' orchestration is particularly lush, with many harp glissandi and warm horn passages. Most interesting is Mackerras' simultaneous scoring of the opening chorus of Patience and the second-act quintet from The Gondoliers.

The length of the complete ballet—45 minutes—prompted Mackerras to make a concert suite arrangement, which has been recorded numerous times and is easy to find. Mackerras alone has recorded the entire ballet four times.

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