The 20th of February 1972
Official U.K. Singles Chart results from Sunday the 20th to Saturday the 26th of February 1972
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 19th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 20th,
announced on Tuesday the 22nd,
and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 27th of February 1972.
Val Doonican
Morning
At No.46, on the the U.K. Top 50 Singles Chart the day I am born, is Val Doonican with “Morning”.
“Morning” had entered the Chart at the end of November…
…(Sunday the 28th to be exact) the previous year in 1971.
Val of course was no stranger to audiences in the U.K..
His comfortable soft Irish laid back style of easy listening went hand in glove with his easy going look, in cardigan or sweater, and sitting in his familiar rocking chair on our TV screens, in corners of living rooms up and down the country.
Over twenty years before, he’d become a familiar voice on the B.B.C.’s ‘Light Programme’ at the age of 24, after he’d broken free from his Irish roots from the south east picturesque city of Waterford, where he’d been born and raised as Michael Valentine Doonican, before moving slightly north to perform at Courtown, County Wexford, before shipping himself over to England.
After appearing on the radio show ‘Riders of the Range’ with a four piece quartet known as ‘The Four Ramblers’, who would sing songs during the musical interludes, it was as part of that group (which he played with for most of the 1950’s), that he was invited to a birthday party of Anthony Newley (who the ‘Four Ramblers’ were supporting on tour), who first witnessed his solo turn performing “Paddy McGinty’s Goat”. A comedy song written way back in 1917, for an American act named the ‘2 Bobs’.
Acknowledging Val’s own clear talent that night,..
…Anthony strongly urged Val that he should make a name for himself without the band.
Taking on Anthony’s advice, he waved goodbye to the other three Ramblers to head into new unchartered solo territory, and by the ripe old age of 34, at the beginning of the 1960’s, Val had become so successful, he had his own popular radio show on the B.B.C., and a year after that, was also presenting his own TV show on Irish television.
It would be a further couple of years later, while performing in cabaret, that another Val, the powerful theatre agent, actor, and managing director of British TV, Val Parnell, who after seeing him perform onstage, booked him to play on the immensely popular live TV show ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’, where he went down so well, he was invited back the following week.
This televised performance, and the audience reaction to it, was noticed by assistant head of Light Entertainment, Bill Cotton, who signed Val up for his own T.V. show, in the United Kingdom.
Val’s lighthearted feel…
…brought in big audiences, whether on TV, or on the road, who especially enjoyed his more humourous songs from back in the music hall days at the turn of the century, such as another one called “Delaney’s Donkey”, which Val reminisces about here.
From first getting his own show on British TV,..
…it was around the same time that Val scored his first U.K. Chart hit, which would climb all the way up to No.3 around Christmas 1964, with “Walk Tall”.
Many other hits would follow,..
…including “Elusive Butterfly”, which would reach the Top 5 a couple of years later in 1966…
…and at the end of that year,..
…he managed to climb all the way up to No.2 with “What Would I Be”. Only being denied the top spot by Tom Jones singing “The Green Green Grass of Home”, in the week leading up to Christmas 1966.
Although his singles…
…which were released at this time, were mainly ballads, it would be the more comedic songs which would also delight the TV audiences, especially the humorous tales regarding the character ‘O’ Rafferty’, such as the one involving his motor car…
…so much so, that by the end of the 1960’s…
he’d published the comedic tales in book form, including the one about O’Rafferty’s Pig, which he performs again here, many years later.
It was also around this time…
…that he recorded the song for the film “Ring of Bright Water”, which featured the welcome reunion of the two stars of the epic film “Born Free” released a few years before. The wonderful chemistry between Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna became another big hit, and this time they were featured in a more fictional tale with an otter.
The song which accompanied the film would become Val’s last charting single during the 1960’s.
As the new decade of the 1970’s dawned,..
…Val’s cheerful TV persona and music releases were still just as popular. In fact, the song currently in the charts when I enter the world, will be his lucky 13th U.K. Singles Chart entry, since “Walk Tall” eight years before.
“Morning”, after entering the chart the year before at No.45, took two weeks to climb into the Top 20 at No.19. A position it would hold onto for two further weeks.
A further week later, from Boxing Day to New Years Day, the song would climb a further seven places to sit at its peak position of No.12, before it began to slowly climb back down the chart.
The 20th February 1972 (the day I’m born) would be the start of Val’s 13th and final week in the Top 50 with this single.
Later on, I remember Val being on the TV as I grew up,..
…and to me he always seemed very ‘Sunday Evening’ viewing (if you get my drift). Whether if that was when his programme was broadcast I don’t know without digging deeper to find out, but his style and manner always suited that time of the week to me, along with other comfortable British programmes such as ‘The Antiques Roadshow’, or ‘Last of the Summer Wine’, etc.
It’s been stated that Val was compared to Perry Como (my Mum’s favourite singer), but that Val himself likened his style more to his idol Bing Crosby.
Personally, I see him more as an Irish version of Andy Williams, replacing the stool for a rocking chair. With his personality coming through a big old TV set which took up the space of an armchair sitting in the corner, his voice emanating through the wooden speaker.
The memory feels as cosy as a pair of old slippers, next to a warm fireside, with a mug of hot chocolate.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
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