19 June 1971
With five number one singles dotting the decade like bird droppings, Brendan Shine can claim to be Ireland’s biggest chart-topping star of the ’70s. It may somewhat colour this accolade for you to know that his nearest competitor in this was Red Hurley with four; the showband-dominated ’60s Irish charts congealed into an equally-provincial post-showband cabaret supremacy in the ’70s. For further context: as for Ireland’s international chart-topping stars of the decade, Gilbert O’Sullivan had three Irish number ones, Thin Lizzy two, and just one for The Boomtown Rats.
Brendan Shine’s bit was a blend of céilí accordion, stage-culchie persona, and the occasional comic ballad. In this regard our ’70s chart-topping Irish champ could claim to be forward-looking as a John The Baptist to the 1996 coming of Richie Kavanagh. He even prefigures ‘Aon Focal Eile’ by delivering Ireland’s other notable slice of chart-topping innuendo, and had his own TV shows on RTÉ during the ’80s. So, here in 1971 with the Shiner’s first number one we’re glimpsing the future of light entertainment in Ireland, and perhaps also a key driver of our emigration rate.
‘O’Brien Has No Place To Go’ isn’t that bit of Richie Kavanagh-esque smut I mentioned, though it’s a mildly comic song about a father whose house is swarming with suitors calling on his daughters. The early reference to them being “the fairest young girls on the block” gives away this song’s American origins as a Tin Pan Alley tune, albeit co-written by Dublin-born Stanley Murphy, from the 1900s. In other words, Shine here is peddling music-hall Paddywhackery to an Irish audience. And there’s more of this to come. Bet you can’t wait!
