28 June 1965 'Crying In The Chapel' sees Elvis entering his Tiny Tim phase. Not Tiny Tim the whimsical '60s falsetto folkie: Elvis here goes all-in on his low, sonorous, serious croon. No, I mean poor little Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol, hoping people would see his small, frail figure in church and be … Continue reading Elvis Presley – ‘Crying In The Chapel’
Tag: 1965
Sandie Shaw – ‘Long Live Love’
14 June 1965 Bom! Buh-bom! Bom! Buh-bom! That's the sound of '60s UK and US pop swinging mildly to a borrowed calypso beat: we hear it in hits like 'It's Not Unusual', 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose' and this. 'Long Live Love' in its final verse even replicates the brassy calypso blare … Continue reading Sandie Shaw – ‘Long Live Love’
Dickie Rock and The Miami Showband – ‘Every Step Of The Way’
24 May 1965 Dickie Rock's version of 'Every Step Of The Way', a minor 1963 US hit for Johnny Mathis, is a wedding-day marriage-lifetime ballad with a key change at the end. In that regard it provides Irish precedent to Westlife's '00s songbook of life-sentence domestic commitment. Appalling moral culpability, I know, but I don't … Continue reading Dickie Rock and The Miami Showband – ‘Every Step Of The Way’
The Beatles – ‘Ticket To Ride’
26 April 1965 1965 is when The Beatles kick on from '50s rock n' roll-flavoured mop-top Merseybeat and hit their masterpiece stride with a new, nuanced '60s guitar-pop sound. 'Ticket To Ride' still has one foot in the old ways: that mid-section and outro are familiar bluesy rockalongs. But those are tack-ons: the main thrust … Continue reading The Beatles – ‘Ticket To Ride’
Butch Moore – ‘Walking The Streets In The Rain’
5 April 1965 Before Eurovision, what did Ireland do for national pop-cultural psychodrama? Whatever public interest or patriotic pride our first Eurovision entry may have whipped up in 1965, I doubt anyone anticipated its grip on the Irish imagination ever since. If anything, our recent trail of semi-final elimination has intensified our fascination and fervour; … Continue reading Butch Moore – ‘Walking The Streets In The Rain’
Tom Dunphy and The Royal Showband – ‘If I Didn’t Have A Dime (To Play The Jukebox)’
22 March 1965 Don't worry, Brendan Bowyer fans: he hasn't left The Royal Showband (yet). Tom Dunphy was their bass player and had already done vocal duties with them. So, think of this as their equivalent of George or Ringo singing one. 'If I Didn't Have A Dime (To Play The Jukebox)' was a B-side … Continue reading Tom Dunphy and The Royal Showband – ‘If I Didn’t Have A Dime (To Play The Jukebox)’
Butch Moore and The Capitol Showband – ‘Born To Be With You’
8 March 1965 "Musical Director: Phil Coulter" says the label (above) of 'Born To Be With You', giving us early notice of an eminence beige in Irish popular music for years to come. This being an Irish showband record, the track is originally a '50s US pop hit. Coulter's peppy arrangement tries to bring some … Continue reading Butch Moore and The Capitol Showband – ‘Born To Be With You’
Brendan Bowyer and The Royal Showband – ‘The Hucklebuck’
18 January 1965 'The Hucklebuck' is the 'Maniac 2000' of '60s Ireland and the most famous record of the Irish showband era. That said, tempting as it is to suggest such a rare flash of native dancefloor-filling buzz caught some '60s mood of social change or economic prosperity, this is still the Ireland of mass … Continue reading Brendan Bowyer and The Royal Showband – ‘The Hucklebuck’
