Joe Dolan - Recordings

Recordings

After reforming the band Joe recorded a song called “Make Me an Island,” written by the songwriting duo Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, for Pye Records in conjunction with Shaftesbury Publishing. The track was a hit in England and led to Dolan's first appearance on the BBC's Top of the Pops and helped to make him the biggest Irish star in the world at that time, eventually becoming a number one hit in 14 countries (including Ireland) although only reaching number 3 in the UK. Dolan was the first Irish star to appear on Top of the Pops. After the recording of Make Me An Island he was approached and signed by the MAM Agency whose major star was Tom Jones. Follow-up singles “Teresa” and “You’re Such a Good Looking Woman” also made an impact. Other single releases such as “It Makes No Difference” and “You and the Looking Glass” were not big hits at home in Ireland or in the UK, but they were international successes. A collaboration with writers Roberto Danova and Peter Yellowstone in the mid 1970s produced more singles which made little impact on the British domestic market but did well internationally. In 1974's “Sweet Little Rock ‘n’ Roller” was the first of a number of reasonable successes for this team but wasn't a major hit in the UK until later recorded by Showaddywaddy, who had a Top 20 hit with the song in 1979. (Also covered by The Bay City Rollers).

His next single, “Lady in Blue” was his biggest ever hit, winning five gold records and selling one million copies. It was popular in Europe, Australasia, Africa and South America but not in Ireland or the UK. Further hits including “Crazy Woman”, “Sister Mary”, “Midnight Lover”, “Hush Hush Maria” and “I Need You” followed. Reflective songs such as “If I Could Put My Life on Paper” were a collaborative attempt to show a more maturing artist, whilst definitive versions of songs such as “Danny Boy” maintained a touch of Irish on disc and in concert. In any given month Joe could be touring the Middle East one week, Australia the next, then South Africa and then back to Europe and Ireland.

Further international successes and tours followed, with hits such as “More and More” and “It’s You, It’s You, It’s You”.

With his own record label, studio and material Joe became one of the biggest selling independent artists of the 1990s with albums such as ‘Endless Magic’ keeping him near the top of the charts. At the end of the decade he refined his voice for the 21st century when he hooked up with EMI for a series of albums (such as ‘Joe’s 90s’, ‘21st Century Joe’ and ‘Home Grown’) which saw him tackle more contemporary music from acts as diverse as Oasis, Pulp, Blur, U2, Bruce Springsteen, The Coral, R.E.M., Mundy and his old pal Robbie Williams (Joe was a good friend of Robbie’s father, and he often stayed at the Williams home when in the UK). At the Oxegen Festival 2009, Blur’s Damon Albarn dedicated the song "The Universal" to Joe.

Joe recorded “Let There Be Love”- an album of old-school crooner classics perfectly suited to his smooth and still powerful voice. Plans were set in motion for further albums and some major concerts to cement and further his status and as 2007 came to a close the demand for concert tickets was still high.