3 May 1969
If your favourite Beatles track is ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ then you’re going to love our impending trudge through the kitsch bubblegum pop of Ireland’s chart topping singles in the ’70s. Before that, though, here’s a Paul McCartney composition that channels the spirit of (read: carbon-copies) ‘Martha My Dear’: same farting schlager two-step, same over-rich orchestration, and that tapping rhythm is the McCartney lap being slapped by the McCartney hands. There’s at least half a wing of the bucolic featheriness of ‘Blackbird’ baked into this too: yum.
As for Mary Hopkin, not only does ‘Goodbye’ prove she isn’t a ‘Those Were The Days’ one-hit wonder, but she also has two more Irish top five hits the following year, the second of which is only kept off our top spot by a landmark Irish pop cultural artefact which itself overdoes the pastoral tweeness. Hopkin’s voice is sweet and flighty, but also thin and glassy, an impression not helped by the high key. Truth be told, the song itself is just as featureless. However, McCartney’s naff ditties will be the dominant influence on ten years of chart-topping mainstream pop to come, notably through the works of Ireland’s biggest pop star of that decade. Hello 1970s!
