8 February 1986
Other times I’ve had to make speculative guesses as to why a certain single topped the charts, but I remember exactly why ‘Only Love’ by Nana Mouskouri got to number one; it was the theme to a big-budget Euro-American Saturday evening TV mini-series called Mistral’s Daughter. If you lived in two-channel Ireland in early 1986 this was what you watched on a Saturday evening; now there’s captive audience marketing for you.
To my small-child mind, Mouskouri was famous for being famous in mainland Europe. Also, her thick-framed glasses were apparently her trademark. I can’t name another song of hers and, having reacquainted myself with the blustery, schmaltzy melodrama of ‘Only Love’ just now, I have no wish to look any further into the matter.
