8 November 1965
One person relieved to see The Late Late Show survive RTÉ’s turbulent summer of 2023, and with its original theme, must surely be ’60s English pop star Chris Andrews. What we know as The Late Late Show theme is actually his other 1965 hit, ‘To Whom It Concerns’. Even the thinnest sliver of Late Late residual must surely mean steady income to the Andrews bank account.
Breezy and likeable as it is, ‘Yesterday Man’ is so similar to ‘To Whom It Concerns’ that in statistical terms they’re the same record: same ska-flavoured brass, same schlager-inflected two-step oompah rhythm. Even the airy backing vocals call to mind the king of German easy listening, James Last – also provider of a long-running Irish TV theme tune, for The Sunday Game. That’s a veritable Oktoberfest of German vibes soundtracking our formative Irish television experiences. Don’t be surprised if it turns out the Fair City theme is originally by Rammstein.
