8 June 1967 I didn't know that 'Silence Is Golden' was originally by The Four Seasons. Their 1964 ur-text doesn't have the same pep or swagger as their classic Jersey Boys sound, though - it's closer to a pre-Beatles country-pop ballad. Think of Frankie Valli on a horse. This Tremeloes cover sticks to the original … Continue reading The Tremeloes – ‘Silence Is Golden’
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Little Mix – ‘Cannonball’
15 December 2011 First thing I checked: was there an anti-X Factor counter-movement behind the original 'Cannonball' at Christmas 2011? If there was, it didn't get far. Damien Rice's version re-entered the Irish charts at a mere no. 19 before gravity and nominative determinism took hold. (It had already entered the Irish and UK charts … Continue reading Little Mix – ‘Cannonball’
The X Factor Finalists ft. JLS and One Direction – ‘Wishing On A Star’
1 December 2011 This 2011 iteration of The X Factor's annual side-hustle forwent its usual militaristic poppy-kissing to raise money instead for a UK children's palliative care charity. The Irish record-buying public, who had magnanimously put previous X Factor collective singles like 'Ooh, Aah, Up The British Army' and 'Come Out Ye Talibans' to number … Continue reading The X Factor Finalists ft. JLS and One Direction – ‘Wishing On A Star’
Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – ‘We Found Love’
13 October 2011 The unlikely roll call of women who've achieved notoriety by running carefree in a field of crops includes Theresa May and, while shooting the video for 'We Found Love', Rihanna. The latter incident was in a field in Co. Down, as you'll recall, and involved a no-nonsense Ulster farmer (who was also, … Continue reading Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – ‘We Found Love’
Johnny McEvoy – ‘The Boston Burglar’
18 May 1967 Are we sure this isn't actually the Boston Strangler? I ask because we leave the light-fingered narrator "serving up full twenty years in the penitentiary" - a bit draconian for your common-or-garden spot of breaking and entering, unless he had been burglarising Trevelyan's corn. On the upside, that dolorous train trip from … Continue reading Johnny McEvoy – ‘The Boston Burglar’
The Dubliners – ‘Seven Drunken Nights’
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’
One Direction – ‘What Makes You Beautiful’
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’
Sandie Shaw – ‘Puppet On A String’
22 April 1967 Here's the first Eurovision winner in English, the first Eurovision winner for the perfidious Royaume-Uni, and the first Eurovision winner to top the Irish charts. In claiming this factoid triple crown for the UK, 'Puppet On A String' pipped that year's Irish entry, Sean Dunphy's bucolic ballad 'If I Could Choose', which … Continue reading Sandie Shaw – ‘Puppet On A String’
Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – ‘Moves Like Jagger’
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 have to put it … Continue reading Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – ‘Moves Like Jagger’
The Wanted – ‘Glad You Came’
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’
