The Bachelors

For other uses, see The Bachelors (disambiguation).

The Bachelors were a popular music group from Dublin, Ireland, but based primarily in the United Kingdom. They had several international hits during the 1960s, including eight top-ten singles in the UK between 1963 and 1966. The Bachelors split in 1984.

The Bachelors
The Bachelors in 1966 (l-r: Con Cluskey, Dec Cluskey, John Stokes)
Background information
Origin	Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Pop Easy listening
Years active	1957–1984
Labels	Universal, Decca, Philips, Pickwick, London, Galaxy, Deram
Past members	Conleth Cluskey Declan Cluskey John Stokes
Website	Con & Dec the Bachelors John Stokes' the Bachelors

Career

The founding members of the group were Conleth (Con) Cluskey (18 November 1935 – 8 April 2022), his younger brother Declan (Dec) Cluskey (born 23 December 1941) and their friend John Stokes (Sean James Stokes) (born 13 August 1936). They formed their first band together in 1957: "The Harmonichords" (also seen as "The Harmony Chords"), a classically styled instrumental harmonica-act.

As the Harmonichords, they appeared on Hughie Green's Opportunity Knocks on Radio Luxembourg and on The Ed Sullivan Show St. Patrick's Day special (filmed in Dublin, broadcast 15 March 1959), in which they played "Danny Boy".^[1][2] They also played background music plus featured pieces in a 25-week radio comedy series called Odd Noises on Radio Éireann, which featured Eamonn Andrews.^[1] In 1960, they changed their name to the Bachelors at the suggestion of Dick Rowe, A&R at Decca Records, who reportedly recommended the name "because that's the kind of boy a girl likes".^[3]

During the 1960s, they had many successful songs in music charts in Europe, Australia, South Africa, South America, USA and USSR. Among the most successful were: 1963 – "Charmaine", "Diane" (a UK no. 1 hit);^[4] 1964 – "I Believe", "Ramona", "I Wouldn't Trade You for the World" (UK no. 2); 1965 – "Marie" (written by Irving Berlin), "In the Chapel in the Moonlight". In 1965 they also had the 'most played juke box track' with "The Stars Will Remember", from the film "It's all over town". Their last big hit in the UK was a cover of the Paul Simon song "The Sound of Silence", which reached no. 3 in April 1966.

Live work carried them into the 1970s with record-breaking theatre season shows. After a successful end to the 1960s with the album World of the Bachelors hitting the top 10 in 1968, the band became less and less dominant in the changing music industry. They remained successful recording artists and moved to the Philips label, which contracted easy listening stars such as Val Doonican and The New Seekers. The group continued to play the cabaret circuit, maintaining the original line-up until 1984 when there was "a messy split" between the Cluskey brothers and Stokes. The Cluskeys removed Stokes from their business company, "Bachelors Ltd", then dismissed him from the group. Stokes took legal action and it was ruled that the "Bachelors" name belonged to all three men.^[4][5] Following this acrimonious parting of the ways, with the rift never being healed, the Cluskey brothers appeared as "The New Bachelors" and Stokes as "Stokes & Coe"; Stokes allegedly also then appeared as "The New Bachelors^[6] and the Cluskeys performed as "Con & Dec, The Bachelors".

In 2008, a compilation CD I Believe – The Very Best of The Bachelors was released. Featuring the 1960s hits together with two new songs recorded by Con and Dec Cluskey, it was issued by Universal which had acquired the Decca catalogue.^[7] Available in the US as an import from the UK,^[8] it reached no. 7 in the UK album chart.^[9] Con and Dec Cluskey appeared on TV and radio to promote the album.

Con Cluskey died on 8 April 2022, aged 86. He had been living in Elland, West Yorkshire, since 1970.^[10][11]

Film and television

In the 1960s, the Bachelors made guest appearances on TV^[12] and performed in two Royal Variety TV shows.^[13] In 1963, they starred in It's All Over Town with Frankie Vaughan and The Springfields. The following year they appeared on the TV show Sunday Night at the London Palladium, then hosted by Bruce Forsyth: this episode achieved the largest viewing audience ever for this popular show.^[13]

The Bachelors appeared in a film in 1964 called Just for You (known as Disk-o-Tek Holiday in the USA), with DJ Sam Costa. In 1965 they made I've Gotta Horse with Billy Fury. In 1971 they featured in a TV situation comedy series called Under and Over, playing three Irish navvies working on the London Underground. Six episodes were broadcast on BBC One.^[14]

The group began 1970 by appearing on the BBC's highly rated review of the 1960s' music scene Pop Go The Sixties, performing "Charmaine" and "Diane" live on the show, which was broadcast on BBC1 on 1 January 1970.

In December 2016, Con and Dec appeared in Channel 4's Skeg Vegas, a one-off documentary following Skegness' entertainment agent Noel Gee.^[15]

In August 2017, Dec appeared as a contestant in Channel 4's Come Dine With Me.^[16]

Songs

The Bachelors' version of "Charmaine", with its descending melody that had already made it an evergreen, jogs along to a country guitar strum and a sprinkling of piano licks. Dick Rowe chose American Shel Talmy as record producer, who went on to produce some of The Kinks' classic rock hits. Another 1927 movie theme song, "Diane"—penned by the same songwriters as "Charmaine", Erno Rapee and Lew Pollack, and arranged in the same Nashville-like manner, but produced by Michael Barclay—was released in 1964 and gave the group their biggest international hit, reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart, as well as an American breakthrough at number ten.

Four of their hit songs ("Charmaine", "Ramona", "Marie" and "Diane") were taken from 1920s' films. Jim Reeves had also covered the first three of these in the 1950s.

Discography

Main article: The Bachelors discography