13 May 1967 Who's the most prudish and squeamish about sex: RTÉ for banning 'Seven Drunken Nights', The Dubliners for not singing the final two verses, or the narrator for going out and getting drunk every night instead of tending to the marital bed? This isn't only an Irish trait. Carry On films from the … Continue reading The Dubliners – ‘Seven Drunken Nights’ →

15 September 2011 One Direction only finished third in the 2010 series of The X Factor, but by the following year's series had become the biggest boy band on the planet. What's more, they did so by returning the boy band idiom to the concept of teenage joie de vivre, far from the maudlin wedding-anniversary … Continue reading One Direction – ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ →

18 August 2011 Only a few weeks earlier, Cher Lloyd had topped the UK charts and reached no. 2 in Ireland with 'Swagger Jagger'. Now here's the dreadful Maroon 5 also name-checking the Stones front-man. Was there a mini cult-of-Mick in the summer of 2011? Not that I can recall. We'll just have to put … Continue reading Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – ‘Moves Like Jagger’ →

14 July 2011 Wantedmania, if there was such a thing, didn't extend to my then-domicile of France in 2011, so I have no contemporary context to add to 'Glad You Came' other than passing familiarity with the tune. There's Irish interest here, of course, since one-fifth of The Wanted was Siva Kaneswaran, becoming the second … Continue reading The Wanted – ‘Glad You Came’ →

15 April 1967 Yes, that's the billing on the record: full names separately, with Nancy first. In 1967 this was probably a nod to the belief that the new pop music was sweeping the old pop (literally, in the case of Nancy's old pop Frank) into irrelevancy. Okay, turns out Frank Sinatra didn't disappear into … Continue reading Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra – ‘Somethin’ Stupid’ →

7 July 2011 Logic and rationale normally wither in the blinding double-flash of Jedward. However, I'll venture that this number one had cause; it was surfing the wave of 'Lipstick', which a couple of months previously had stormed to a glorious qualification for the Eurovision final and then an 8th place finish ahead of the … Continue reading Jedward – ‘Bad Behaviour’ →

2 June 2011 What did the people of 2011 see in Pitbull, I ask myself disingenuously, knowing full well that his brand of cheap-suited, bald-headed, gruff, sexist, thuggish assholery has never gone out of fashion. Anyway, here's his second Irish number one single in two months and his third in less than a year. Itemising … Continue reading Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer – ‘Give Me Everything’ →

25 March 1967 In Ireland the deed was done by Petula Clark's 'This Is My Song', but in the UK the single that kept The Beatles' double-A-sided 'Strawberry Fields Forever' / 'Penny Lane' off the number one spot was this. Naturally, 'Release Me' also eventually topped the charts (with The Beatles at no. 3, still … Continue reading Engelbert Humperdinck – ‘Release Me’ →

27 February 1967 Fans of UK pop chart lore will know that The Beatles' double-A-side single of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' was kept off the UK number one spot by a cabaret crooner ballad which we'll see next here. As for Ireland, there isn't an official Irish chart place for 'Strawberry Fields Forever', … Continue reading Petula Clark – ‘This Is My Song’ →