Easy to poke fun at but a fine singer
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 05/03/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Everybody likes to poke fun at Des O'Connor. This was vividly illustrated in a British TV commercial some years ago (the eighties?) in which a fisherman, unable to catch a fish, started playing a Des O'Connor record. He lowered a speaker into the water whereupon all the frightened fish immediately leapt out of the water and into the waiting nets. Great fun, but his music is much better than that as this collection demonstrates.
Though better known as a TV host, Des had several UK hits in the sixties, all of which can be found here. He began with Careless hands (a cover of a Mel Torme song), which made the UK top ten. His second hit, I pretend, gave Des his only UK number one hit. His third single, 1 2 3 O'Leary, became his final UK top ten of the sixties. He had four further UK hits in the sixties and early seventies of which three (Dick-a-dum-dum, Loneliness, Tips of my fingers) made the UK top twenty while, I'll go on hoping was a minor UK hit. Des eventually had another UK top ten hit in 1986 (Skye boat song, a duet with Roger Whittaker) but that is not included on this collection of his sixties and early seventies music - however, you can easily find it on a Roger Whittaker compilation.
Apart from his own hits, you can also hear Des sing classic songs such as Red roses for a blue lady, Try to remember, Something, Dream a little dream of me, Your cheating heart, You always hurt the one you love, For the good times, Raindrops keep falling on my head and Everybody's talking.
If you enjoy easy-listening pop music by Roger Whittaker, Val Doonican, Andy Williams and Perry Como, you will probably enjoy listening to Des O'Connor's music."
