3 January 1964
I don’t know who I expected to find as Ireland’s biggest pop star of the ’60s, but I was still surprised to see that it was Dickie Rock. The guy singing cabaret schmaltz on Live At 3 in the ’80s? Well, yes: over the next two years he has six Irish number ones. There’s his Eurovision entry for sure, but I had forgotten the showband factor: live local covers of watered-down US rock n’ roll seemed to be the extent of Ireland’s early-’60s music ecosystem. Perhaps Dickie and The Miami Showband also benefitted as Dubs from the larger city fanbase. Anyway, I’ll have a few opportunities now to consider the chart-topping Dickie Rock oeuvre.
I’m not so surprised to discover that ‘There’s Always Me’ is a cover of an Elvis ballad; Elvis’s early-’60s country-pop Daniel O’Donnell phase seems to have been where Irish showbands liked to do their big shop. Dickie sounds like another squeaky-clean local Elvis placeholder: Cliff Richard. None of the foregoing is a compliment. This is dreary stuff, but who knows? Maybe Dickie and friends playing this live in your town’s ballroom was the fateful slow set where your parents or grandparents first shifted.
