Chart entered : 15 October 1964
Chart peak : 3
Number of hits : 14
Though having a fair amount of Irish ancestry I've never had the slightest interest in, or affection for, this man or his music. With songs like "Paddy McGinty's Goat" and "Delaney's Donkey" he could even be said to have helped perpetuate the common anti-Irish perception of a land of rustic retards.
Well let's try and be fair. Michael Valentine Doonican was born in Waterford in 1928 and had to leave college and do factory jobs when his father died in 1941. Ten years later he moved to England to join a folk group The Four Ramblers who did a lot of radio work but no one invited them to record anything. This went on for a decade until the group supported Anthony Newley. Newley both persuaded him to go solo and introduced him to the dancer Lynette Rae who is still his wife.
His first single for Decca was a version of Don Gibson's "Blue Blue Day" in February 1963 followed by a cover of Hank Williams's "Kaw- Liga" in May. Neither got much attention but he had become popular enough for a slot on Sunday Night At The London Palladium that year. On the strength of that performance Bill Cotton offered him his own show on BBC1 and the hits followed. In that sense Val was the second ( after the much younger Adam Faith ) pop star created by TV.
"Walk Tall" was a third country cover, this one written by Don Wayne , but Val's version hit the UK charts before Faron Young made it a hit in the States. I struggle to get a handle on the song ; a self-confessed delinquent reflects on his mother's instructions to "walk tall" from inside his prison cell. So if he'd had an arrogant swagger that wouldn't have happened ? I just don't get it. Val sounds convincingly American and it's sprightly enough with its acoustic strum and brushed drums but this sort of thing does nothing for me I'm afraid. There is some guitar work from Jimmy Page behind the first couple of verses but you have to listen quite hard to pick it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment