21 November 1974 If you were a mid-'70s pop fan whose taste in male teen idols ran to something more mature and worldly than David Cassidy or some random Osmond, then doe-eyed David Essex would well have been your pin-up of choice. And since his mother was from an Irish family, we can also claim … Continue reading David Essex – ‘Gonna Make You A Star’ →

31 October 1974 It's not a great sign for the track as a whole when the singer keeps getting the chorus lyric wrong. But that's what happens here on 'Everything I Own', which Ken Boothe insists on singing as "anything I own". Maybe it's intended as a tweak to suggest the narrator owns little or … Continue reading Ken Boothe – ‘Everything I Own’ →

17 October 1974 'Annie's Song' gets a renewed burst of witticism-fuelled attention every five years in Ireland when we're asked to fill in our census. Aside from that quinquennial project of theirs, the Central Statistics Office also confirms we have plenty of Annies among us; in 2025 it was the 37th most popular girl's name … Continue reading John Denver – ‘Annie’s Song’ →

3 October 1974 Well now. Whatever this record's motivation at the time—perhaps mere cultural appropriation to cash in on the martial arts movie craze of the era—it's now to our ears full of the sort of sonic tags that would get thrown at anyone of Asian heritage, or fuel "hilarious" depictions of their community in … Continue reading Carl Douglas – ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ →

12 September 1974 'Nineteen Men' is the sixth number one song in Ireland in the space of just three years about someone in prison, and the eleventh in eight years. What's more, Dermot Hegarty's previous Irish chart-topper was also a jailbird story, 'Twenty One Years'. Was this really such relatable pop-culture content at the turn … Continue reading Dermot Hegarty – ‘Nineteen Men’ →

22 August 1974 And why not Abbeyshrule? Surely every village, parish, sráidbhaile and townland in the country has its own celebratory ballad, right? What's more, Abbeyshrule in Co. Longford is in the heart of what the nearest tourist office would call Goldsmith Country, so perhaps Brendan Shine is waxing lyrical here about his favourite 18th … Continue reading Brendan Shine – ‘Abbeyshrule’ →

25 July 1974 Footnotes first: The Times were an Irish showband, and not US vocal group The Tymes who would have a number one in Ireland six months later with 'Ms Grace'. The Irish group included the two Swarbrigg brothers from Cootehill in Co. Cavan, credited as writers of 'If Ma Could See Me Now', … Continue reading The Times – ‘If Ma Could See Me Now’ →

18 July 1974 I once stood behind Charles Aznavour in a queue at the bank in Paris. He was courteous to the teller and got his business done quickly. That, I'm sorry to say, is my best celebrity encounter story from the eight-and-a-half-years I spent Seine-side. You've probably had starrier celeb sightings or meetings in … Continue reading Charles Aznavour – ‘She’ →

11 July 1974 Sensational news for those of you emotionally invested in the Big Tom Memorial Statue in Castleblayney: to facilitate the renovation of the neighbouring Market House, in August 2026 the statue was boarded off and no longer visible. This provoked a less-than-gruntled one-star review which has caused the statue's Tripadvisor rating to fall … Continue reading Big Tom and The Mainliners – ‘Old Love Letters’ →