Track Listing

1. Special Years
2. Elusive Butterfly
3. If The Whole World Stopped Loving
4. Morning
5. For The Good Times
6. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
7. Heaven Is My Woman's Love
8. Now
9. Paddy McGinty's Goat
10. Walk Tall
11. If I Knew Then
12. What Would I Be
13. O'Rafferty's Motor Car
14. Marvellous Toy
15. Song Sung Blue
16. King Of The Road
17. Two Streets
18. I'm Just A Country Boy
19. Delaney's Donkey

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4347 in Music
• Released on: 1993-12-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Irish singer popular in Britain
Everybody who was around in the sixties, seventies and eighties in the UK remembers who Val Doonican was - he was a regular on TV, usually hosting his own show in which he would always sing at least one song, often sitting in a rocking chair. But before he established himself as a TV host, he was a singer with a string of UK hits - three top three hits, two other top ten hits, three that came close to the top ten and six minor hits. Ballads were his stock-in-trade but he was not limited to them as he sometimes recorded up-tempo or mid-tempo songs. In the main, he recorded easy listening pop music or covers of soul, country and folk songs adapted to an easy listening pop style but he also recorded some Irish songs too.

Val's five big hits were Walk tall (one of his more upbeat songs), The special years, Elusive butterfly (a cover of the Bob Lind classic - both Val and Bob peaked at number five in the UK charts), What would I be (his biggest hit) and If the whole world stopped loving. The three hits that didn't quite make the UK top ten were Memories are made of this (not included here), If I knew then what I know now and Morning.

Three Irish songs (Delaney's donkey, O'Rafferty's motor car and Paddy McGinty's goat) and a few covers of classic pop and country songs (King of the road, Song sung blue, For the good times, Marvellous toy, First time ever I saw your face) are also featured.

If you just want a single CD of Val's music, this contains the essentials. For a real treat, buy the double CD (His special years)instead.

Pull on that Aaron and relax....
A very relaxing, nostelgic album. People who are not fans of Val (or don't have a clue who he is) will still find themselves tapping their foot or rocking in their chair a little to this. The sound quality is excellent.
My only disappointment was the lack of old favourites such as Mysterious People and The driver was a Leprocorn.
Brilliant stocking filler for anyone who enjoys the bygone days of 'Easy Listening'.

Relaxing with Val...
This 1991 release really does bring together 20 of his best performances on record. The likes of "Walk Tall" (1965) and "O'Rafferty's Motor Car" do bring back happy memories of his TV shows. Always a great live act this CD captures a very wide range of material and seems to be the best collection currently available.
The liner notes by John Martland set the scene, the CD is nicely packaged and the sound quality is very good indeed. Running time approx 54 minutes.