14 April 2011 Pitbull: as if Conor McGregor and Vin Diesel had a child together but never showed it love. Normally at the first huff of his dour, humourless, sexist, talentless grunting I change my radio station to something more appealing, like the death notices. So, I'm only vaguely familiar with 'On The Floor' as … Continue reading Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull – ‘On The Floor’
Author: Aidan Curran
Adele – ‘Someone Like You’
3 March 2011 Enter superstar. She'd had chart hits in the UK and Ireland before this, and her new album 21 was already receiving rapturous reviews. Still, 'Someone Like You' feels like the beginning of world-domination-era Adele. It would have been a hit anyway, but her live performance of it at that year's Brit Awards … Continue reading Adele – ‘Someone Like You’
Tom Jones – ‘Green, Green Grass Of Home’
5 December 1966 'Green, Green Grass Of Home' starts something of an Irish Christmas tradition: our Christmas number one record sung by—spoiler alert—someone in a police or prison cell ('Whiskey In The Jar', 'Fairytale Of New York') and, since he's about to be executed, presumably a killer too ('Whiskey In The Jar' also, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' … Continue reading Tom Jones – ‘Green, Green Grass Of Home’
Johnny McEvoy – ‘Muirsheen Durkin’
14 November 1966 I was intrigued to see that Johnny McEvoy, the avuncular folk balladeer who popped up on every Irish light entertainment show of the '80s, originally released his version of 'Muirsheen Durkin' under the nom de folk of The Rambler (a nod to his previous double act The Ramblers Two) with its sleeve … Continue reading Johnny McEvoy – ‘Muirsheen Durkin’
Lady Gaga – ‘Born This Way’
17 February 2011 Here we are again: another of those gargantuan early-'10s Lady Gaga hits. The blaring, overproduced, identikit, corporate-level EDM track at the centre of all this event-release, expensive-video foofaraw is bland, cliched, and fatuous. Anyone at the time who recalled Madonna's 'Express Yourself'—and 'Born This Way' certainly helps to jog memories in that … Continue reading Lady Gaga – ‘Born This Way’
Charlie Matthews and The Royal Showband – ‘Somewhere My Love’
7 November 1966 They've had number ones sung by their frontman Brendan Bowyer ('The Hucklebuck' et al.) and their bass player Tom Dunphy ('If I Didn't Have A Dime (To Play The Jukebox)'), and now here's a Royal Showband chart-topper with vocals by their drummer. Was this a marketing move, similar to how most Beatles … Continue reading Charlie Matthews and The Royal Showband – ‘Somewhere My Love’
Dermot O’Brien and His Clubmen – ‘The Merry Ploughboy (Off To Dublin In The Green)’
26 September 1966 Here's a factoid to squirrel away for your next table quiz: Dermot O'Brien won an All-Ireland senior football title as captain of Louth in 1957 and had an Irish number one single with 'The Merry Ploughboy' in 1966. We're used to GAA stars topping the polls as politicians, but Dermot O'Brien is … Continue reading Dermot O’Brien and His Clubmen – ‘The Merry Ploughboy (Off To Dublin In The Green)’
Jessie J ft. B.o.B. – ‘Price Tag’
10 February 2011 Tempting as it is to read social commentary into an Irish number one single of 2011 with the chorus "We don't need no money, money, money", 'Price Tag' isn't your zeitgeist-capturing anthem of troika-era Ireland. Instead, it shares with 'Imagine' that timeless lack of self awareness in which a big-budget pop track … Continue reading Jessie J ft. B.o.B. – ‘Price Tag’
Bruno Mars – ‘Grenade’
13 January 2011 Content warning: self-harm It's not just our (hopefully) more enlightened sensibilities - already in 2011 Bruno Mars' chorus litany of angsty, performative self-harm came across as overwrought and crass, even by the shirt-rending benchmarks of '90s US R&B balladry and the asinine skidmarks of '00s US hip-hop-diluting chart hits. And his gripe … Continue reading Bruno Mars – ‘Grenade’
Joe Dolan and The Drifters – ‘Pretty Brown Eyes’
5 September 1966 In more recent times Joe Dolan was synonymous with much-loved hip-swinging cabaret oldies like 'You're Such A Good-Looking Woman' and 'Make Me An Island' - neither of which got to number one in Ireland. What actually topped the '60s Irish charts for Joe were, and you'll be unastonished to hear this, showband … Continue reading Joe Dolan and The Drifters – ‘Pretty Brown Eyes’
