29 August 2013
Finbar Furey top of the charts, Johnny Logan at number three… was there an ’80s-Ireland revival in August 2013 that I wasn’t aware of? Not quite, but nor do I remember The Hit, an RTÉ talent show series in which each week budding songwriters competed to have their composition sung by one of two famous Irish singers, with the two chosen tracks then competing to chart the higher in the following week’s Irish hit parade. The format clearly had some success; The Hit spawned a return to the Irish top ten for The Stunning, Samantha Mumba and Mundy and a rare visit to such lofty heights for the excellent Julie Feeney and Duke Special. Finbar Furey’s chosen track here tops the Irish charts in the penultimate week of the series before going on to win the grand final.
I can only imagine that the thinking behind Finbar Furey singing ‘The Last Great Love Song’, a subdued, low-pitched romantic ballad with no discernible features, was some Situationist stunt to make one of Ireland’s most distinctive voices top the charts with a record that takes away his distinctive vocal identity. So, none of the sandpapery rasp or keening emotion that made ‘The Green Fields Of France’ and ‘When You Were Sweet Sixteen’ such beloved classics; I suspect goodwill and good RTÉ multi-platform cross-promotional hustle is what made this hit of The Hit a hit. Give it a miss.
