6 September 1963
Here’s the first official Irish number one single by an Irish act. It’s also a first opportunity to consider the Irish phenomenon of the showbands.
In one sense, the showbands weren’t just an Irish phenomenon. Since Elvis never toured Europe, many countries on this side of the Atlantic cashed in with their own local ersatz substitutes: Cliff Richard and others in England, Johnny Hallyday and others in France. As for Ireland, Elvis’s leather-clad youthiness was a bit too lascivious and hip-swinging for official tolerance, so the showbands were an Irish solution to an Irish problem: play ’50s rock n’ roll to a ’60s audience in a ’40s big-band style. They were highly lucrative and wildly popular: of the 43 Irish number ones in the ’60s by Irish acts, 34 of those were by showbands or their solo singers. Five of those number ones were by Brendan Bowyer and The Royal Showband, most notably ‘The Hucklebuck’ – the ’60s Ireland version of ‘Maniac 2000’. We’ll see that soon.
‘Kiss Me Quick’ is even an Elvis cover, though hardly one of his more famous numbers. Thankfully, and notwithstanding his own later Las Vegas years, Bowyer doesn’t sound like he’s going in for an Elvis impersonation; his voice here is closer to Roy Orbison’s warbling croon. The big-band arrangement and key change nudge this back to ’50s pop, though the zippy drumming suggests at least a passing awareness of newer beat-pop. Let’s not be too harsh on your parents and grandparents, though: this is probably all they had in 1963 as non-church-based local live entertainment. And it’s better than Cliff Richard and Johnny Hallyday.
Irish Number Ones 