The Bachelors - Songs

ABOUT

The Bachelors were an Irish pop trio with clear and pleasing vocals and an easy listening style that became famous during the mid 1960s. Their best known songs include updated remakes of such traditional pop standards as "Diane" (1964), "I Believe" (1964), "Marie" (1965), and "Chapel In The Moonlight" (1965).

Formed in Dublin in 1957 and first known as The Harmonichords (a.k.a. The Harmony Chords), the original members consisted of John Stokes (b. August 13, 1940) and brothers Conleth (b. November 18, 1941) and Declan Cluskey (b. December 23, 1942). They began as an instrumental harmonica act, and as The Harmonichords, they made a number of TV appearances in both the U.K. and the U.S. that included one on The Ed Sullivan Show in which they performed "Danny Boy" on that show's St. Patrick's Day special in 1959. By 1962, they had signed with Decca Records and switched to singing, with a name change to The Bachelors. Under that new moniker, the trio appeared again on the Ed Sullivan show (on May 23, 1965 and May 15, 1966), making them possibly the only act to have ever performed on this show under two completely different names.

The Bachelors had their first charting song in 1963 with "Charmaine," a country pop remake of the title theme to the 1927 movie. Although only a minor hit in the U.S., this song became the first of many top hits in both Ireland and the U.K. Their fame took off in 1964 with the similarly-styled "Diane" (from the 1927 silent movie, "Seventh Heaven"), which made the U.S. Pop/Rock Top 10 and became their biggest hit worldwide, topping the U.K. charts. Their many hits, which continued on both the Adult Contemporary and Pop/Rock charts through 1967, also include "I Believe" (1964), "I Wouldn't Trade You For The World" (1964), "No Arms Can Ever Hold You" (1964), "Marie" (1965), "Chapel In The Moonlight" (1965), "Love Me With All Of Your Heart" (1966), "Can I Trust You?" (1966), "Walk With Faith In Your Heart" (1967), and "Marta" (1967). Other songs for which The Bachelors are well known outside the U.S. include "Ramona" (1964) and their cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound Of Silence" (1966).

After their commercial peak in the 1960s, The Bachelors continued to record and perform actively on the cabaret circuit until 1984 when a falling out between Stokes and the Cluskey brothers led to a permanent split into two incarnations of The Bachelors. Both groups have continued to perform to the present day.

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SONGS

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The Bachelors

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