21 November 1997
Joe Dolan here becomes the only act to have an Irish number one single in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Surprisingly, since it was something of a signature song for him, the original ‘Good Looking Woman’ wasn’t one of Joe’s previous five Irish chart-toppers, only peaking at number four in 1970. Now that we have the factoids out of the way, any song with an opening line of “When God created a woman for me” is dubious stuff. ‘Good Looking Woman’ is just an up-tempo hip-swinging iteration of the same male-gaze objectification and commodification of women as ‘The Lady In Red’. You wouldn’t want to get any of this on your clean white suit.
Having a children’s TV character duet on this regurgitation of the sexist old trophy-totty trope is icky enough, and that’s without you having to see the video for this, available online elsewhere, with unfortunate shots of Dustin checking out Amanda Byram from a low angle. But then, of course, it’s Dustin, so we know quality control was never a consideration anyway. As with the Geldof ‘Rat Trap’ duet, the jokes here are still that Dustin is singing on a record but can’t sing, and that he’s being cheeky to a celebrity. Oh, and don’t forget the stage Dub-isms! You Dublin folk really have strange taste in the music you buy, such as this.
Irish Number Ones 