12 December 1987 and 8 December 2023 Kirsty MacColl herself sings "you're cheap and you're haggard" in the version of 'Fairytale Of New York' in the video below. You'll also hear her sing that line in what we can call an alternative official version posted on The Pogues' own YouTube channel. So, "you're cheap and … Continue reading The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl – ‘Fairytale Of New York’
LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock – ‘Party Rock Anthem’
21 April 2011 Fair play to LMFAO for giving good factoid. You may remember how the two lads, Redfoo and Sky Blu, are uncle and nephew. They're also the son and grandson respectively of Motown supremo Berry Gordy, so Redfoo has a half-sister who's Gordy's daughter with Diana Ross, a half-brother in '80s one-hit-wonder Rockwell, … Continue reading LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock – ‘Party Rock Anthem’
Joe Dolan and The Drifters – ‘The House With The Whitewashed Gable’
20 February 1967 Challenge: listen to 'The House With The Whitewashed Gable' until the very end without cringing. It can't be done! If the twee "dum-dee-dum-dee-dum" or the shameless gable-Mabel rhyme don't get you, Joe's jaunty spoken-word "Hi!" will. (As explained before, The Drifters here aren't the US vocal group, just Joe's backing band, eventually … Continue reading Joe Dolan and The Drifters – ‘The House With The Whitewashed Gable’
The Monkees – ‘I’m A Believer’
23 January 1967 It feels almost refreshing to listen to 'I'm A Believer' today, free of context and baggage. Is The Monkees' show still being repeated on TV? Perhaps by some retro oldies channel, but hardly on Saturday morning kids' TV the way my malleable small-child brain experienced it and '60s Batman in the '80s. … Continue reading The Monkees – ‘I’m A Believer’
Jennifer Lopez ft. Pitbull – ‘On The Floor’
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’
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’
Irish Number Ones 