7 June 1973
Considering the volume of songs about rose-like women from various Irish places—off the top of my head there’s Mooncoin, Allendale, Clare, Castlerea and especially my home town of Tralee—it’s odd that only three chart-topping singles in Ireland have ‘rose’ in the title, and none of them are those well-known Irish ballads. The first was American and definitely not Canadian. The second was an Irish act singing an American song. The third, which we’ll see here in due course, was American and Guyanese, and coincides with the most tumultuous world and Irish event in recent history.
The humble daisy, also being a girl’s name, can claim two number one singles in Ireland. Neither of them are ‘Daisy Bell’, the old standard best-known for starting with “Daisy, Daisy / Give me your answer do” and which doesn’t seem to have ever had a version in the Irish charts, or Justin Bieber’s 2025 track ‘Daisies’, which was kept off the Irish top spot by ‘Killeagh’. In fact, the first was antiquated waltz-time ballad ‘When The Fields Are White With Daisies’ which topped our charts in August 1969, the month the Troubles started in the north, despite being a First World War-era favourite about a sentimental solider and therefore notionally on the same side as the British Army. And here’s Danny Doyle, already an Irish chart-topper with English folk song ‘Whiskey On A Sunday’ in 1967, with our second and final Daisy number one to date.
The references to a candy store give away the origin of ‘Daisy A Day’ as an American song too. The clunky corniness of the rest of the lyrics (“I’ll love you until / The rivers run still / And the four winds we know blow away”) and the mawkishness of the storyline should also narrow that down to it being a US country song. Catchy chorus or not, there isn’t much you can do to redeem source material like that. While the production has depth of field for an early-’70s Irish record and the tinkling piano a twinkling charm, those flashes of adequacy are undone by Doyle’s strangely airy lilt, as if he were singing it gingerly to an elderly relative dozing off in an armchair. Regarding this Daisy ditty, I’ll give you my answer: don’t.
According to CSO data, there were 105 new Daisies born in Ireland in 2025, putting it at no. 43 of the most popular names for girls that year, no doubt helped by the prominence of actors Daisy Ridley and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Back in 1973, though, despite featuring in the title of a number one single in Ireland that year, there weren’t even the requisite three new-born Daisies to merit inclusion in the official league table. By comparison, there were 55 baby Roses that year, and eight Violets. Way to temporarily stink out a perfectly good flower-themed baby name, Danny!
