Those carefree days!
Dear Editor, Isn’t it funny how a song creeps into your mind that you may not have heard for 50 or more years? Well, one such song that was popular in the early 1960s went like this: ‘Goodbye cruel world, I’m off to join the circus / Gonna be a broken-hearted clown / Paint my face with a good-for-nothin’ smile / ‘Cos a mean, fickle woman turned my whole world upside down’. This was at a time when Elvis songs were all the rage - ‘It’s Now Or Never’ and ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’ and ‘Return To Sender’ to name just three while Cliff Richards had ‘Livin’ Doll’, ‘When The Girl In Your Arms (is the girl in your heart)’, ’The Young Ones’, ‘Bachelor Boy’ and ‘Lucky Lips’. When his ‘Summer Holiday’ hit the silver screen in 1963, my pals and I headed to The Royal or The Palace where we seldom if ever missed a change of film. By this time of course we had seen Elvis in ‘Blue Hawaii’. Little wonder then that any of the above mentioned songs bring me back to those glory days.
We all have our favourite songs but I would like to list ten of my favourite female stars whose songs might hopefully, jog a happy memory for your readers. Let’s take the great Connie Francis to start with. She had ‘ Everybody, Somebody’s Fool’ in 1959, a year or so after ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ hit the No I spot in the UK for her and went to No 4 in America. ‘Que Sera Sera’ was a massive hit for Doris Day who sang it both on stage and screen; Helen Shapiro brought us ‘ You Don’t Know’ followed shortly after by ‘ Walkin’ Back To Happiness’. Cilla Black who had a very close association with The Beatles had ‘You’re My World’ in 1964 which followed ‘ Anyone Who Had A Heart’, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. This was also a hit for the great Dionne Warwick who also brought us the wonderful ‘Walk On By’ among others. The song ‘I Will Always Love You’ from the film ‘Bodyguard’, gave Whitney Houston a massive hit in 1992, gaining her a Grammy Award for ‘record of the year’.
As well as the international stars however, we also have some great favourites from our own batch of female singers. Sinead O’Connor lit up the music scene with ‘ Nothing Compares To You’ in 1990 and her singing of ‘ Butcher Boy’ is always a joy to hear. The Black sisters Mary and Frances of the famous Dublin-based Black family, have given us some memorable songs, Mary singing ‘Katie’ for instance or ‘All The Lies That You Told Me’ by Frances. I could not finish here without mentioning the great Dolores Keane from Co Galway and her singing of ‘ Caledonia’: ‘Oh, but let me tell you that I love you / That I think about you all the time / Caledonia you’re calling me / And now I’m going home’.
Staying with the ladies, I mentioned in a previous letter names of girls we admired in our young days (from afar) but, as was pointed out to me by a pal from that era (thanks for the reminder), there were many others, some of whom I mention here and who would also have gone to see Elvis and Cliff in The Ormonde and The Palace in those young and carefree days: There was Annabeth and Aileen O’Connor, Sheila Magnier, Maureen Moran, Julie Cull, Eileen Casey, Ann Stritch, Ann Dale, Margaret Kelly, Stephanie Hyde, Helen Lyons, Nuala Mangan, Mary O’Donnell, Joan Flynn, June O’Connor, Brenda Baker, Clare Burke, Joy Doody and Anne Lomasney.
I would like to finish by giving a mention to a few Grange stalwarts - Daithi Birmingham (a great GAA man) and another skilled player, Willie Hanrahan (Grange GAA and Avondhu). Willie played in a county senior football final; Christy Roche (Gurrane) now a well respected historian who was very involved in GAA and Athletics in Grange and finally, Seamus Clifford, another good GAA man who is now keeping the men of the area looking their best with his barbering skills. Well done all!
God be with the old folk.
Yester- Me, Yester-you, Yester-day!
I remain, Yours sincerely, Tom McAuliffe, Cluain Dara,
Fermoy.