23 August 1973 Three Counties was an Irish brand of processed cheese in my childhood, named after the Golden Vale agricultural heartland in Munster that takes in parts of Cork, Tipperary and Limerick. I remember it came in a round cardboard box as a wheel of individual segments wrapped in tinfoil. Like most processed cheese … Continue reading Brendan Shine – ‘Where The 3 Counties Meet’ →

30 August 2019 Gotye, Iggy Azalea, Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP, Sia... the '10s brought us a clutch of fleeting and idiosyncratic chart-topping acts from Australia. Now here, in the final year of the decade, is the most fleeting and idiosyncratic of the lot, with perhaps the most divisive track of all. Today's globalised online … Continue reading Tones And I – ‘Dance Monkey’ →

19 July 1973 Could a song like 'Welcome Home' get to number one these days? The quaint sentimentality and intravenous nostalgia, for sure—see the parochial 'Killeagh'—but perhaps not the squarely middle-aged cabaret sound: I remember it being covered by light entertainment troupers and showband stragglers on Irish TV regularly during my '80s childhood and it … Continue reading Peters and Lee – ‘Welcome Home’ →

28 June 2019 Time was, Kylie and Jason could sing a chart-topping romantic duet in the afterglow of a ratings-smash TV marriage and we'd all enthusiastically go: "Are they? Aren't they? Of course they are!" Today, in our cynical Internet age, such a scenario would be immediately dismissed as a celebrity fauxmance. That was the … Continue reading Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello – ‘Señorita’ →

12 July 1973 I thought I knew Slade's ''Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me'. Turns out I didn't. Perhaps I simply forgot it. Anyway, it's here now, on my nerves. If you don't know it but you're already familiar with Slade, don't bother. 'Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me' is AI Slade: a familiar-sounding verse and chorus of screeching … Continue reading Slade – ‘Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me’ →

17 May 2019 Ed Sheeran spoke publicly in 2019 about suffering from social anxiety, the explicitly-stated theme of 'I Don't Care'. If the song helps you process or manage social anxiety too, or gets you through a challenging occasion, that's fair enough. I won't snark on you or this harmless track, in which the two … Continue reading Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber – ‘I Don’t Care’ →

28 June 1973 Rubber bullets were developed by the British Ministry of Defence, and their first use was by the British Army in Northern Ireland. Ostensibly non-fatal rounds for dealing with riots and public disorder by being fired at the ground in front of people's legs, rubber bullets soon proved to be responsible for deaths … Continue reading 10cc – ‘Rubber Bullets’ →

10 May 2019 Lewis Capaldi's second chart-topping single within two months, and with another to follow by the end of the year, means he dominates the Irish number one spot in 2019 the way Ed Sheeran did in 2017. That's the only direct comparison I'll make between the two; Capaldi's more robust songs and style … Continue reading Lewis Capaldi – ‘Hold Me While You Wait’ →

7 June 1973 Considering the volume of songs about rose-like women from various Irish places—off the top of my head there's Mooncoin, Allendale, Clare, Castlerea and especially my home town of Tralee—it's odd that only three chart-topping singles in Ireland have 'rose' in the title, and none of them are those well-known Irish ballads. The … Continue reading Danny Doyle – ‘Daisy A Day’ →

31 May 1973 Christmas already, is it? At this point, in May 1973, the Wizzard sound wasn't yet synonymous with the festive classic they would release at the end of that year. Here on the far side of 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day', though, it's a challenge for me to peer through … Continue reading Wizzard – ‘See My Baby Jive’ →