24 January 1966
Ireland’s 1966 number ones include eleven Irish singles by eleven different Irish acts, making it by far the most successful year for Irish acts topping our charts. If that suggests a new-found ’60s national self-confidence or cosmopolitan swagger, let me pull the handbrake straight away by reminding you that this is still the age of retrograde showbands, now drawing added vampirish sustenance from cabaret and country & Irish. That said, the Irish folk and trad revival bubbles up to the top of our 1966 charts too – eventually.
Our first 1966 chart-topper is Irish, from the country & Irish wing of showbandia and, at the sub-atomic level, the ‘Irish’ wing of country & Irish. Larry Cunningham and The Mighty Avons had even supported Jim Reeves, the father of country & Irish, on his fractious 1964 Irish tour; on the evenings Reeves refused to go on stage due to dissatisfaction with the local piano or even the locals, Larry and co. placated the restless natives in his place. Nationwide fanbase thus accrued, Larry starts scoring Irish top ten hits that include his ‘Tribute To Jim Reeves’ (subtext: thanks for not going on stage and thereby gifting me a fanbase, Jim!), two Irish number two places later in 1966, and this, the first of his two Irish chart-topping singles.
This particular chart-topper is notable as the first Irish number one single about an Irish place. Given how every county, river, parish and townland in Ireland seems to have its own celebratory ballad, it’s odd to think that we won’t have that many more – but perhaps local rivalry and enmity explains that. So, why would the whole country buy a record called ‘Lovely Leitrim’ sung by a Longford act? Well, who would begrudge them? As an actual record, it’s your typical waltz-time Irish standard: Larry warbles a list of Leitrim’s delights, which do indeed extend to a whole three minutes’ worth. I need only mention it’s the one with the chorus of “where the Shannon waters flow” and anyone who grew up in rural Ireland or an Irish Centre immediately hears it in their mind’s ear. That’s not to say I understand why something so creakingly old-fashioned went to number one, apart from the observation that by 1966 Ireland had barely entered the ’50s, but we’ll see an odd mix of modern and musty at the top of our charts that year.
