28 March 1981
Roxy Music’s version of ‘Jealous Guy’ (a marked improvement on John Lennon’s original) was a March 1981 UK number one that didn’t top the charts in Ireland, but why bother with Bryan Ferry when we had Joe Dolan?
Okay, so Ferry was a musical trendsetter who had things like lounge lizard charm, tailored suits, and an astonishing voice that would wrap itself around a song like smoke, while Joe was an upwardly-mobile showband singer, sweaty, avuncular, and vocally had one setting: high-pitched belting. But, much as we still do with Johnny Logan, people in Ireland genuinely liked Joe. He always seemed happy on stage, was sweaty because a “Joe show” involved him giving it socks from first song to last, and brushed off prurient questions about why he remained a bachelor. Plus, he was a bona fide international star without recourse to Eurovision; ‘Make Me An Island’ went to number three in the UK and number one in 14 other countries, his signature hit ‘You’re Such a Good Looking Woman’ went top 20 in the UK, and other singles of his posted good foreign numbers too. Years after his death it emerged that Joe Dolan was on a UN blacklist because he had played twice in apartheid-era ’80s South Africa and hadn’t given assurances that he wouldn’t do so again, but even this hasn’t dented his standing: various tribute shows, from cover bands to a long-running stage musical, still fill venues around Ireland.
‘More And More’ did so well for him that soon after he released a near-identical track called ‘It’s You, It’s You, It’s You’. Still, I wouldn’t make any grand claims for ‘More And More’. It’s cheap tat: a chugging country riff, plastic synth, Joe’s impassioned pleading, and that’s about it. When people in Ireland speak fondly of Joe, this isn’t one of the songs that comes up.
