11 October 1965
Amazing fact: ‘Tears’ by Ken Dodd was the UK’s third-biggest-selling single of the entire ’60s. It sold more than all but two Beatles hits, every Stones single, and every ’60s single sung by a woman. Yes, the same Ken Dodd I dimly remember from ’80s TV as an amiable but unfunny English music-hall survivor with a perma-gurn and a feather duster. Can it possibly be that good? Of course not!
If you’ve been following Irish Number Ones as we swing through the ’60s, Dodd’s straight-bat ’40s-style sentimental pop ballad will remind you of Ireland’s home-grown chart-toppers by Dickie Rock and Butch Moore. Yes, ‘Tears’ by Ken Dodd is an actual English showband record. I know we were exporting Irish problems (abortion, unemployment, light entertainers) to England with gusto, but I never expected them to catch the Irish showband variant of retrograde milquetoast cabaret schmaltz. And they made it their third-biggest-selling single of the decade! Good work, óglách Dodd.
