7 September 1968
Just when I thought Ireland’s number ones of 1968 couldn’t get any worse, here’s Cork’s most prevalent showband. Their frontperson was singer Brendan O’Brien but their real star seems to have been drummer Joe Mac, who was still popping up with skits and japes on Irish light-entertainment television during my otherwise happy ’80s childhood. ‘Little Arrows’, the first of several Dixies chart-toppers I’ll have to come to terms with, is their version of English singer Leapy Lee’s whimsical hit from earlier that year. As we established when contemplating ’00s Leeside anthem ‘The Langer’, Cork people so love English stuff like the Queen of England visiting their English Market that this local tribute to ’60s English whimsy is no surprise to seasoned Cork-watchers like me. They’re always at it.
Like Dickie Rock’s ‘Simon Says’ from a few months earlier, ‘Little Arrows’ is infantile tweeness from its galloping hobby-horse rhythm right down to its pratfall “wah wah wah waaah!” guitar hook. Since I doubt the schoolkids of ’60s Ireland had much disposable income for buying singles, I take it working-age men and women were the ones twisting sweatily to this at showband concerts and then buying the record the following pay day. Good luck to them and The Dixies with their cupid stunts.
Irish Number Ones 