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Joseph Francis Robert Dolan (16 October 1939 – 26 December 2007) was an Irish singer, entertainer and recording artist. Chiefly known in Ireland for his association with showbands and for his innovative style and high tenor singing voice, he had a wide appeal with many international fans. His energetic and charismatic stage performances influenced his long standing advertising slogan: "There's no show like the Joe show”. The only Irish singer to reach number one in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Dolan was a persistent presence in the
music chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, ofte ...
s in Ireland and overseas.


Early life and family

Dolan was born at the County Hospital, now known as the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar,
County Westmeath County Westmeath (; or simply ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It formed part of the historic Kingdom of ...
on 16 October 1939, the youngest of nine children in a
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
family. He was orphaned at a young age – his father, a bicycle shop proprietor, died when Joe was ten; his mother when he was nineteen. He sang in school, and his mother had encouraged him to take up the piano. He made his first stage appearance at a talent show held in a marquee on the Fair Green in his native
Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, Ireland, Midland Region, with a population of 22,667 in the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census. The Counties of M ...
.


Voice

Dolan's voice was high with a comprehensive range without the use of
falsetto Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ...
and he made comprehensive use of a technique known as
melisma Melisma (, , ; from , plural: ''melismata''), informally known as a vocal run and sometimes interchanged with the term roulade, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in ...
.Casey, 2008, p192 Vocal ranges such as this were not common in the 1960s and 1970s but were later made popular by artists such as
Mariah Carey Mariah Carey ( ; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Songbird Supreme" by ''Guinness World Records'', Carey is known for her five-octave voc ...
,
Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...
and
Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, film producer, model, and philanthropist. Commonly referred to as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the Voice", she is List of awards and no ...
, among others. The Irish chat show legend
Gay Byrne Gabriel Mary Byrne (5 August 1934 – 4 November 2019) was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was as the first host of '' The Late Late Show'' over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. ''The Late La ...
famously described Dolan’s voice as “butter mixed with honey”.


Career


The Drifters

In 1958, as well as securing his first (and last) "real" job as a compositor in the local '' Westmeath Examiner'' newspaper, Dolan got his first guitar. After learning some skills on the instrument, he and his saxophone-playing brother Ben started to play in local bands. They soon formed a band of their own – The Drifters. Not long afterward, the band was renamed Joe Dolan and the Drifters and finally Joe Dolan and ''His'' Drifters to avoid legal action from the American band of the same name. The Irish musical landscape in the 1960s was dominated by the showbands. The first single "The Answer to Everything", (previously released as a B side by
Del Shannon Charles Weedon Westover (December 30, 1934 – February 8, 1990), better known by his stage name Del Shannon, was an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known for his 1961 number-one ''Billboard'' hit " Runaway", which was covered la ...
) was released in September 1964, reaching number 4 in the Irish charts. Dolan and his band were managed by Seamus Casey. In the summer of 1968, however, some of the band left, with Dolan and Casey citing "musical differences" as the reason, although in the official biography by Ronan Casey (Seamus Casey's son) further elaboration includes references to unhappiness about financial issues.


Tours

Dolan's first US tour was in 1965 and followed an offer, which he refused, to play in Las Vegas. Instead, he decided to play a whistle-stop tour of Irish-American venues in places such as Chicago, New York and
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. An added benefit to this string of engagements was the opportunity to hear American music which hadn't yet been played in the UK and Ireland. The first song gleaned in this fashion was the
Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. One of the earliest pioneers and practitioners of the Nashville sound, he played a central role in the sonic development of country music in th ...
song, ''(That's When I see the Blue in Your) Pretty Brown Eyes'' which Dolan released on the Pye label in 1966. A second US tour in 1967 led an offer to appear in Las Vegas, but he turned it down. Eventually in 1980 he accepted $10,000 a week plus board and lodgings to perform for six weeks over September and October at the Continental Lounge of the Silverbird Casino on the Strip in Las Vegas. Eventually playing 64 shows and selling out most of them, he and his band returned to Ireland to be immediately rebooked for Vegas in January 1981. Although he turned down subsequent offers to return to Vegas, other venues approached him with increased offers, thinking he was merely hunting around for the best deal, but Dolan refused them all. Several other attempts were made through the years to entice him back but he never returned – except on holiday. In 1978, he became the first Irish artist and one of the first Western acts to tour the USSR. He played 23 concerts in 23 nights in Moscow, Leningrad and the Moldovan capital, Kishinev. Dolan toured the segregation era in South Africa and was on a UN blacklist for defying the artists' ban.


Recordings

After reforming the band Dolan recorded a song called "Make Me an Island", written by the songwriting duo
Albert Hammond Albert Louis Hammond Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 18 May 1944) is a Gibraltarians, Gibraltarian singer, songwriter and record producer. A prolific songwriter, he also collaborated with other songwriters such as Mike Hazlewood, John B ...
and Mike Hazlewood, for
Pye Records PYE or Pye Records is an independent British record label. It was first established in 1955 and played a major role in shaping rock 'n' roll and pop music history. The Pye name was dropped in 1980 due to trademark issues, after which it produced ...
in conjunction with Shaftesbury Publishing. The track was a hit in the UK and led to Dolan's first appearance on the BBC's ''
Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...
'' which helped to make him "the biggest Irish star in the world at that time". The song eventually became a number one hit in 14 countries as well as reaching Number 3 in the UK, becoming Joe Dolan's only British Top 10 hit and one of only four hit singles Dolan ever had in the UK (all of these hits performed better in the Irish Charts). In Ireland, the song peaked at number 2 in August 1969, the same week it was Number 3 in the UK. After the recording of ''Make Me An Island'' Dolan 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. "Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller" (1974) 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. His next single, "Lady in Blue" was his biggest ever hit, winning five gold records and selling one million copies. It charted in parts of continental Europe, 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 Dolan 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 Dolan 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 EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
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 In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentPulp, Blur, U2,
Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
,
The Coral The Coral are an English rock band, formed in 1996 in Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside. The band emerged during the early 2000s. Their 2002 debut album ''The Coral (album), The Coral'', from which came the single "Dreaming of You (T ...
,
R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...
, Mundy and his old pal
Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was re ...
. At the
Oxegen Oxegen was a List of music festivals#Ireland, music festival in Ireland, first held from 2004–2011 as a rock and pop festival and again in 2013 with dance and chart acts only. The event was regularly cited as Ireland's biggest music festiva ...
Festival 2009, Blur's
Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...
dedicated the song "The Universal" to Dolan.


Personal life

Dolan never married and dealt with speculation about his sexuality throughout his life. He spent much of his life dismissing persistent rumours that he was gay. The official biography suggests that he had a quiet offstage presence and preferred to keep romances out of the public eye but cites a long relationship with Isabella Fogarty whom he met in 1977, started dating in the 1980s and subsequently lived with. She was with him when he became ill on 25 December 2007. In September 1970, Dolan and his band were performing at the Wookie Hollow Club in
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
. Dolan and a member of his road crew stayed in the venue for drinks and to chat to their fans. Some people at a nearby table were attempting to bully the (by now closed) bar into providing them with champagne. Dolan joked that they should come back in a few hours for a "champagne breakfast". The men took exception to this and became abusive. Dolan and his companion tried to leave but were prevented from doing so. During the following fracas Dolan was headbutted (breaking his nose), kicked, punched, and slammed into lavatory fittings and a wall in a sustained attack that was halted only when the sound of police sirens could be heard. It took six weeks for the singer to recover well enough to return to work. The club was sued but went into liquidation. The police attempted to identify the perpetrators and held identity parades that Dolan attended, but no-one was ever prosecuted. In October 1976, Dolan and a group of friends were flying with
Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish , meaning "air fleet") is an Irish airline company which is the flag carrier of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 201 ...
to
Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...
for a golfing trip. On several occasions during the flight, Dolan was moving around talking to other passengers who knew him. One of the party remembers they were "quite merry".Casey, 2008, p. 203 The singer was asked several times by cabin staff to return to his seat and, finally, after being threatened with being restrained, he did so. Upon landing, he attempted to leave the airport without his luggage and passport but was prevented from doing so by security staff, one of whom drew his pistol and pointed it at Dolan. The tour operator subsequently received a fax from Aer Lingus refusing to fly the star back to Dublin. Newspaper headlines in Ireland proclaimed the star's airline ban for life although, as it transpired, the ban lasted for less than two years. It was eventually lifted after the airline negotiated with the star following his continued references to it on stage and in the media.


Illness and death

Dolan's health began to decline after he underwent a
hip replacement Hip replacement is a surgery, surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant (medicine), implant, that is, a hip prosthesis. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi/semi(half) repl ...
in 2005, which put him off the road for 12 months and led to the discovery of
Type 2 Diabetes Type 2 diabetes (T2D), formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent ...
, which appeared to account for the low energy levels he had been experiencing. Following a discussion with
Keith Duffy Keith Peter Thomas Francis Julian John Duffy (born 1 October 1974) is an Irish singer, actor, radio and television presenter and drummer who began his professional music career as part of Irish boy band Boyzone alongside Ronan Keating, Mik ...
of the boy band
Boyzone Boyzone were an Irish boy band created in 1993 by the talent manager Louis Walsh. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's ''The Late Late Show (Ireland), The Late Late Show''. Its most successful line-up was co ...
, the hip bone that was replaced was signed and auctioned for €650, the proceeds being given to Irish Autism Action. Dolan returned to his schedule in 2006, but he began to report further signs of low energy. Doctors diagnosed a low blood platelet count and Dolan began a series of blood transfusions. After each, he felt better for a period, but would eventually begin to feel weaker again. At this same time, Dolan was also suffering from unexplained nosebleeds. In Autumn 2007, on advice from his doctors, Dolan cancelled his Vicar Street concerts due to "exhaustion". On 16 December 2007, the front page of the '' Sunday Independent'' reported that Dolan was suffering from a "bad virus" and had been forced to cancel his entire Christmas tour. Dolan's website received messages from well wishers in the wake of the article, which was reproduced in several newspapers the following day. Despite the blood transfusions and other medical interventions, Dolan became weaker and he was finally discharged from the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin on 23 December 2007 in a wheelchair. Dolan spent
Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...
2007 at his home in
Foxrock Foxrock () is an affluent suburb on the southside of Dublin, Ireland. It is within the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, in the postal district of Dublin 18 and in the Catholic parish of Foxrock. History The suburb of Foxrock was developed ...
in southeast Dublin with some friends. Later that evening, his illness suddenly worsened, and he was rushed by ambulance to the Mater Hospital. En route to the hospital, Dolan suffered a massive
intracerebral haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...
, at which he became unconscious, and was connected to life support equipment upon his arrival. At approximately 14:30 hours on
St Stephen's Day Saint Stephen's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Stephen, is a Christian saint's day to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr or protomartyr, celebrated on 26 December in Western Christianity and 27 December in Eastern Ch ...
, surrounded by family and friends, the machines were switched off and Dolan died within 20 minutes, on December 26, 2007, never regaining consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 15:03 hours. He was 68 years old. His funeral mass was held at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar on 29 December 2007. Attendees of Dolan's funeral included singer Ronnie Drew from
The Dubliners The Dubliners () were an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in pers ...
, comedian Frank Carson, snooker player
Dennis Taylor Dennis Taylor (born 19 January 1949) is a Northern Irish retired professional snooker player and current commentator. He turned professional in 1972 and won the 1985 World Snooker Championship, in which he lost the first eight frames of 1985 W ...
, and former
Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...
Albert Reynolds Albert Martin Reynolds (3 November 1932 – 21 August 2014) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1992 to 1994. He held various cabinet positions between 1979 and 1991, including Ministe ...
. Dolan is interred in Walshestown Cemetery, Walshestown North, County Westmeath.


Legacy

A bridge was named after him in the Clonmore Industrial Estate in his hometown of Mullingar, it opened officially on 6 September 2010. It is the second longest bridge in the Republic of Ireland. There is a statue of Dolan in Mullingar's Market Square. Dolan's hip bone is the only body part to ever be sold on eBay. The singer had initially sold his bone at a charity auction before his death and it was later sold on eBay.


Discography


Studio albums

* ''The Answer to Everything'' (1968) (credited to Joe Dolan and the Drifters Showband) * ''Make Me an Island'' (1969) * ''You're Such a Good Lookin' Woman'' (1970) * ''Lady in Blue'' (1975) * ''Sister Mary'' (1976) * ''Midnight Lover'' (1978) * ''Turn Out the Light'' (1979) * ''More and More'' (1982) * ''Here and Now'' (1983) * ''Always on My Mind'' (1985) * ''This Is My Life'' (1987) * ''Always Loved You'' (1990) * ''Can't Give Enough'' (1994) * ''Endless Magic'' (1997) * ''Joe's 90's'' (1998) * ''21st Century Joe'' (1999) * ''Home Grown'' (2003) * ''Double 'O' Joe'' (2004) * ''Let There Be Love'' (2007)


Compilation albums

* ''Joe Dolan's Greatest Hits'' (1968) * ''Golden Hour of Joe Dolan - Vol. 1'' (1974) * ''Golden Hour of Joe Dolan - Vol. 2'' (1975) * ''I Need You (And Other Great Hits)'' (1979) * ''Joe Dolan at His Best'' (1980) * ''The Story of Joe Dolan'' (1993) * ''The Singles+'' (1998) * ''No Better Man - His Greatest Hits'' (2001) * ''Yours Faithfully'' (2003) * ''Make Me an Island - The Pye Anthology'' (2004) * ''Legends of Irish Music'' (2007) * ''The Platinum Collection'' (2008) * ''Joe Dolan, Orchestrated'' (2016) *''Joe Dolan, Orchestrated Volume 2'' (2017)


Singles

;Others * 1966: "I'll Sit on Your Doorstep" * 1970: "The Boola Boola" * 1971: "Sometimes a Man Just Has to Cry" * 1971: "You and the Looking Glass" * 1972: "Here We Go Again" * 1974: "16 Brothers" * 1975: "Crazy Woman" * 1978: "
Unchained Melody "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film '' Unchained'' (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack.Robert ...
" * 1978: "Don't Ever Change Your Mind" * 1994: "Somebody to Call My Girl" * 1996: "I'll Give All My Love to You" * 1997: "Endless Magic" * 1998: "Disco 2000" * 1998: "Place Your Hands" * 1999: "Everybody Hurts" * 1999: "Brilliant Disguise" * 2001: "Better Man" * 2002: "Dreaming of You" * 2003: "Yours Faithfully" * 2004: "Little Green Bag" * 2007: ''Joe Dolan Tribute EP'' (4 tracks) * 2008: " Oh Holy Night"


References


Bibliography

Casey, Ronan, ''Joe Dolan, The Official Biography'', Penguin Ireland 2008,


External links


Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolan, Joe 1939 births 2007 deaths Irish pop singers Irish country singers People from Mullingar Pye Records artists 20th-century Irish male singers People from Foxrock Musicians from County Westmeath 1960s in Irish music 1970s in Irish music 1980s in Irish music 1990s in Irish music 2000s in Irish music