23 November 1985
Maria McKee wrote ‘A Good Heart’ when she was only 19 – coincidentally, the same age as John O’Neill when he wrote ‘Teenage Kicks’. Both those songs were sung to fame by Feargal Sharkey, and that’s where the spooky similarities end, or any similarities at all.
Another in my continuing series of peculiarities about an ’80s pop childhood: I first knew Feargal Sharkey through ‘A Good Heart’. So, not only had I (a small child in 1985) no idea of his post-punk hinterland, but I was completely unaware that the world held something as magical and perfect as ‘Teenage Kicks’ by The Undertones. Sharkey had already made some ’80s chart-pop-sounding singles with Vince Clark and with Chas Smash of Madness, so ‘A Good Heart’ wouldn’t have been a surprise to lingering Undertones fans. (That band had broken up in 1983 but would reform in 1999 with a different Derry singer, Paul McLoone.)
McKee, after years of playing it live, eventually recorded and released ‘A Good Heart’ in 2007. That version is a rollicking piano-driven country-rock song tinged with soul; exactly the sound of a smart teenager stung by heartache and learning from the experience. If you haven’t heard it, you should seek it out.
Sharkey’s version sounds nothing like McKee’s 2007 vintage; his is a shiny adult-contemporary pop bauble produced by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, and reminiscent of Phil Collins’ up-tempo hits but with less grumpiness. His tremulous Derry accent adds some local colour to a glossy mid-Atlantic affair. I like it within the narrow gauge of mid-’80s chart pop, though it probably wouldn’t have been a hit if there had been a McKee original for comparison back in 1985. No doubt there were those who persisted in comparing it to a certain John O’Neill original too. Perhaps there’s some irony in Sharkey’s solo music career forever being in the shadow of two songs written by teenagers.
