Analysis: The showband and cabaret star was a versatile singer, but he selected the songs he wanted to record and perform with great care
To his many fans Dickie Rock could sing anything. His vocal ability and personality meant that he could move effortlessly through different music genres from ballads to bubble-gum pop; from Elvis-style crooning to big band swingers; from Euro-pop to Sinatra-era Las Vegas showtunes.
But his versality shouldn’t distract us from the fact that Rock didn’t just sing anything. With his manager and record label, he selected his songs with great care and those song choices tell a very important story of Ireland’s music and cultural history.
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From RTÉ Archives, Dickie Portrait of An Artist (1966) follows Dickie Rock at home with his family, performing in the dance halls and courting his wife-to-be Judy
The showband and cabaret scenes were built on a bedrock of imported songs. That was bad news for both our economy and our creativity. Despite all of the claims about the strength of Ireland’s music talent, our local songwriters were largely absent from the 1960s showband records. But Rock helped to break that pattern. He opened the doors for Irish songwriters and introduced their work to large audiences all over the country.
The music industry can be very conservative and the Irish music industry certainly adopted a very cautious 'better safe than sorry' approach in the 1950s and 1960s. Songs weren’t selected with a sense of adventure or creativity but with a tried and tested approach. Sadly, for many, that led to a musical cul de sac and showband often translated to cover band.
That said, the showband shows were thrilling. It’s almost impossible now to understand the excitement that they brought to halls all over the island. Billy Magra's outstanding RTÉ series, Ballroom Blitz (2024), did a great job of placing the showbands in their deserved cultural and economic context. Everyone who wants to understand Ireland’s development should study it.
Rock’s singles also help to understand the showband era. His debut There’s Always Me (1963) is a milestone in Irish pop. It marked the moment when the local branch of Pye electronics entered the Irish market and recorded, released and marketed Irish artists. It eventually released hundreds of Irish singles and was a dominant force in the market. But even with his debut single Dickie Rock was being encouraged down the cover band path.
There’s Always Me went to Number 1 in the Irish charts, the first of Rock’s 28 chart hits. It had previously appeared on Elvis’s Something for Everybody (1961) album and that album title summed up the Irish showbands. They had to be something for everybody. You had to be an all-rounder, a family entertainer, but Rock had the range for more.
His three 1964 singles were part of the cover band pattern. I’m Yours and Just for Old Times Sake had also both been released earlier by Elvis. The latter was composed by the Tepper-Bennett team who wrote on an industrial scale, averageing almost two songs every week. From The Candy Store on the Corner to the Chapel on the Hill, which had been a hit in the 1950s for Tony Bennett, became one of Rock's signature tunes as he was guided into middle of the road American night club songs and Elvis album tracks.
From One Night Only With Gay Byrne, Dickie Rock performs From The Candy Store on the Corner to the Chapel on the Hill in 2012
But tucked away on the B-sides were indications of his more adventurous nature. ‘From The Candy Store was backed with the Eddie Cochran raw stomper, ‘Twenty Flight Rock and Rock released his version of Chuck Berry’s Rock 'n Roll Music in 1965. It’s somewhat limited by the way it was recorded, though Rock was performing at this time with seven of Ireland’s best musicians in the Miami Showband, who packed a serious musical punch in concert.
If rock ‘n’ roll beckoned to Rock, the crooning mainstream was where the shillings and pounds were to be found. The small market for records in Ireland meant that Rock couldn’t devote himself to raw rock music. It’s tempting to think of the impact he could have made at home and abroad if had been given that opportunity. As it was, 1965 saw him release Every Step Of The Way, previously recorded by Johnny Mathis; (I Left My Heart) In San Francisco, as popularised by Frank Sinatra; and Wishing It Was You from the repertoire of Connie Francis.
1966 was Rock’s peak year. He represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest with Come Back To Stay which was not, in fairness, the greatest piece of Irish songwriting. Its writer, Rowland Soper, had been billed as ‘Ireland’s Nat King Cole’ in the 1950s, and wasn’t known for writing hit songs so Rock's ambitions of being a rocker had been thwarted again.
Dickie Rock performs Come Back to Stay on the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest
To put Come Back To Stay in context, this was the moment in time when The Beatles had released Rubber Soul and Nowhere Man and were poised to issue Eleanor Rigby and Yellow Submarine. The Beatles sounded like the future and Rock sounded like Las Vegas in the early 1950s.
But there was hope. A pair of determined young Dublin musicians, Aiden Magennis and Shay O’Donoghue from The Debonaires showband, were aiming to break into the lucrative song-writing business. They even planned to start an Irish song publishing company and to write a stage musical. They had received some acclaim for their song, Far Away From You, recorded by Doc Carroll, but their ambitions went beyond that.
They made a fair argument: "we would like to see the Irish known and respected in the field of composing, not only on a national but an international scale." Rock recorded their song Baby I'm Your Man during the height of his post-Eurovision popularity. Its bounce and tune resembled Sandie Shaw’s Puppet on a String but it also had propulsive brass melody. With a stronger production, it could have been a global smash for Rock and the Irish songwriters, but it wasn’t to be. O’Donoghue joined The Dreams showband in 1968 where he was joined by Eric Bell briefly before the latter formed Thin Lizzy.
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From RTÉ Archives, a Dickie Rock television special recorded at the Stardust in Artane, Dublin in 1980
Rock never got to properly explore the dynamic world of global pop. His songs in the 1980s weren’t always captivating. His 1984 single with the Billie Barry Children, written by Brendan O'Reilly, was for a noble cause, but The Litter Song probably belonged in the bin and not on the airwaves. The B-side, Brian Boru I Love You Too, was never going to be a hit anywhere apart from Clontarf.
But Dickie Rock succeeded in bringing joy to tens of thousands of Irish people who danced their way through the decades. And, when it counted, he was happy to support Irish songwriters.
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Dr Michael Mary Murphy is a lecturer in the Department of Humanities + Arts Management, Entrepreneurship at the Institute of Art, Design + Technology Dún Laoghaire.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
