23 September 1971
I’m intrigued that Ireland has a 1971 chart-topping single that opens with the line “I hear some people get married in the park on a Sunday afternoon”. The dominant Catholic Church in Ireland traditionally didn’t perform weddings on Sundays, although that’s a popular day for Anglican and Jewish marriage ceremonies. Add in the next line “And all their friends bring pretty flowers while the band plays a happy tune” and this all sounds like some weird American hippy shit going on in the park. Was the mainstream Irish record-buying public showing some open-minded curiosity about the modern world and other traditions, including those also present in 1970s Ireland? Or did they not notice and were just here for the cabaret schmaltz?
Dawn here are the same Tony Orlando and Dawn who had two mega-hits of the early-’70s: ‘Knock Three Times’ got to no. 3 in Ireland in May 1971, perhaps undercut by local showband The Sands nipping in with their own top-ten cover version a few weeks earlier, but their other signature song will get its time at the top of the Irish charts in due course. Outside of the theoretical Dawn fandom and arguably a nod to its title in the lyrics of Pulp’s ‘Disco 2000’, ‘What Are You Doing Sunday’ hasn’t enjoyed the same continuing high profile. I’d venture that’s because it’s just another low-grade bubblegum pop hit with a whimsically banter-friendly chorus. What are you doing Sunday, Plain People of Ireland in 1971? Showing up to Mass; getting the papers after Mass; playing or watching a GAA match; packing to emigrate. Won’t it be strange when we’re all fully grown?
