Retro Irish Chart 1974: The enduring Irish single that toppled ABBA’s “Waterloo” 50 years ago

1 Any Dream Will Do Joe Cuddy

2 Waterloo ABBA

3 Seasons In The Sun Terry Jacks

4 Doctor’s Orders Sunny

5 The Town I Loved So Well Paddy Reilly

6 I See A Star Mouth and McNeal

7 Behind Closed Doors Brendan Quinn

8 Remember You’re A Womble The Wombles

9 The Most Beautiful Girl Roly Daniels

10 Behind Closed Doors Charlie Rich

Homegrown performer Joe Cuddy brought the brief Irish chart reign of ABBA’s Eurovision-winning “Waterloo” to an end in May 1974.

The Swedish superstars spent two weeks on top before succumbing to the popularity of Cuddy’s “Any Dream Will Do”, a song written six years earlier for the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical “Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”.

By the time Dublin-born Joe Cuddy released “Any Dream Will Do” as his fourth single in March 1974, he already had one No. 1 single under his belt.

The previous year he had topped the Irish charts with the aptly-named “I’m Gonna’ Make It”, a Vince Hill composition which had given Cuddy victory in the internationally-recognised Castlebar Song Contest.

Cuddy had made the leap from cabaret star to TV recognition at the National Song Contest in 1972. His song “Ma dhuachas Dún na ngall” (“My Lovely Donegal”) finished tied for eighth place as Sandie Jones’ “Ceol an Ghrá” claimed the right to represent Ireland at the Eurovision.

That same year Cuddy’s debut single climbed to number 14 in the Irish charts. The song “Sticks and Stones”, co-written with sister Eileen Clancy, earned him a performance on Gay Byrne’s Late Late Show.

In the space of a couple of years, Joe Cuddy had made the successful transition from the cabaret and panto stage to reach a bigger, national audience, but his status as a giant among Irish entertainers in the Seventies is largely down to the enduring popularity of his version of “Any Dream Will Do”.

The single, arranged by the great Noel Kelehan (who conducted five winning Eurovision entries), spent three weeks at number one and a total of 21 weeks on the Irish charts. It sported a B-side also written for “Joseph...”, the Lloyd Webber/Rice song “Close Every Door To Me”.

In 1991, seventeen years after Cuddy’s number one, “Any Dream Will Do” returned to the top of the Irish charts in the hands of Jason Donovan who was at the time playing Joseph in the West End production of the musical at the London Palladium.

After a career spanning five decades, Joe Cuddy passed away just before Christmas, 2020, at the age of 78. RIP