2 August 1963
I see the silent majority of Irish record buyers in 1963 have put another bout of Frank Ifield’s country-tinged yodelling at the top of our charts. There’s one in the eye for all you long-haired Beatlemaniacs!
Like Ifield’s ‘Lovesick Blues’ the previous year, ‘I’m Confessin” benefits from Norrie Paramor’s sumptuous orchestral production: the kiss of vibraphone is Pet Sounds-level gorgeous, and a harmonica somehow sweeps like strings. But of course, Ifield’s money-maker is the yodel, which here also comes in unwelcome falsetto flavour. It drags the whole enterprise back into a decidedly ’50s comfort zone, older record-buying public in tow.
