Chart entered : 24 January 1963
Chart peak : 6
Number of hits : 17
Like Ken Dodd , these lot represent the other side of the Sixties, a comfort blanket act for bewildered parents and so personally anonymous that before today they were probably the only group between The Johnston Brothers and say Three Colours Red that I couldn't name a single member of.
For the record they were Con and Dec Cluskey ( presumably brothers) and Sean Stokes , all from Dublin and all in their early twenties ( though you might not think so ). They got together in 1957 as The Harmonichords an instrumental trio with harmonica as a lead instrument. They soon switched to including vocals .They appeared on the radio version of Opportunity Knocks and a St Patrick's Day special edition of the Ed Sullivan Show filmed in Dublin in 1959. They were also regulars on an Irish radio comedy show.
They signed to Decca where Dick Rowe ( infamous now for rejecting you-know-who ) suggested they change their name . He wanted to market them as a country and western group. "Charmaine" was their first single. It was written in 1926 to accompany a silent movie and had been a hit in both instrumental and vocal versions in the US in the 1950s. It was suggested to the group by Rowe after Karl Denver had turned it down. The protagonist is waiting for Charmaine who's gone God knows where and wondering if things will be the same when she returns, a potentially poignant song but a cheery singalong in the boys' hands. Con, double-tracked by their forward-thinking producer Shel Talmy , sings lead in the tamed yodel style of Frank Ifield though a couple of octaves higher over a light country strum. It's an effective pop record but not for me I'm afraid.
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