It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “Born to Be With You” by Butch Moore
March 10, 1965
“Born to Be With You” by Butch Moore (& the Capitol Showband)
#1 on the Irish Singles Chart, March 8-21, 1965
The early trajectory of rock ‘n’ roll is a familiar story: the tough, grooving sound of singular American talents (Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc.) breaks through in the mid-’50s, is softened by transatlantic crooners and teen idols at the turn of the decade, and strikes back with a vengeance in the mid-’60s, courtesy of tight, propulsive four- and five-piece British beat groups and American garage rock bands. But while the United States and the United Kingdom dominate this narrative of rock history, they aren’t the only places where rock ‘n’ roll adapted and evolved. Other countries developed their own takes on the genre, which became hugely popular locally but seldom escaped their borders.
The Republic of Ireland, with its historic, cultural, and linguistic ties to both Great Britain and the United States, would seem to have been dwarfed by its larger, more hegemonic brethren. But while the country’s pop charts of the era are strewn with obvious British Invasion acts like the Beatles and Gerry & the Pacemakers, a homegrown style of music was equally popular. The Irish showbands were streamlined takes on the big bands of the swing era, typically consisting of guitar, bass, drums, piano, and a small horn section. The groups toured dancehalls across the country playing various iterations of rock ‘n’ roll, pop standards, country & western, trad jazz, and Irish folk songs. While these sorts of combos weren’t unknown in the US and UK — think Bill Haley and His Comets but more eclectic — the showbands remained huge in Ireland for decades, long after similar groups had fallen out of fashion in America.
In the pre-discotheque era, live bands were the necessary source of dance music. Ireland’s relatively compact size allowed showbands to tour widely and become major pop stars, even if they rarely released LPs. In 1965, 20 weeks’ worth of #1s on the Irish Singles Charts — nearly half the year — were credited to one of three of the most popular showbands of the era: the Royal, featuring Brendan Bowyer and Tom Dunphy; the Miami, starring Dickie Rock; and the Capitol, led by James Augustine “Butch” Moore.
In December 1964, Moore and the Capitol Showband earned their first #1 record with “Down Came the Rain,” which had been previously been recorded as a B-side by American country singer Bill Anderson in 1962. For their follow-up, Moore and the Capitol took on a song that was a just few years older, but already somewhat of a pop standard. “Born to Be With You” was first recorded in 1956 by female vocal quartet the Chordettes, of “Mr. Sandman” and “Lollipop” fame. The swoony ballad, with just a hint of rock ‘n’ roll beat, hit the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic. The Capitol Showband’s version revs up the tempo and swaps the Chordettes’ minimalism with a full-band rock sound, including horn accents and a boogie piano. The result is a performance that replaces the original’s tender romance with a full-bodied, physical joy.
Moore sings not in his native Dublin accent, nor in the affected African-American dialects of many British rock singers, but in a style heavily informed by country and western music. After all, the American artists most popular in Ireland during the mid-’60s were Elvis, Roy Orbison, and the late Jim Reeves, all of whom were white men from the rural South steeped in its native music. (Perhaps these singers were so popular because the Irish recognized the kinship between country music and their own Celtic folk tunes, exported by immigrants to Appalachia.)
Like Moore and the Capitol’s previous hit, “Born to Be With You” peaked at the top of the Irish Singles Chart. Nevertheless, the group was still largely unknown outside of its homeland apart from the occasional tour of the UK, US, and Canada, when the Irish dancehalls were closed for Lent. That would change quickly. On March 20, 1965 — while “Born to Be With You” was still the #1 record — Moore represented Ireland for the country’s first-ever appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest. The song he performed, “Walking the Streets in the Rain,” would finish in sixth place at Eurovision, and become Moore’s third consecutive Irish chart-topper.
The Capitol Showband’s success wasn’t to last, however. In 1966, Moore departed for a solo career, but neither he nor the Capitol managed to scale their previous heights. But while the band may have crumbled, the song lives on. Sonny James scored a #1 country hit with “Born to Be With You” in 1968, while Dave Edmunds’s 1973 version went to #5 in the UK, making the song a hit in three consecutive decades. (An intense, somber take on “Born to Be With You” also grants the title to Dion’s 1975 cult classic album produced by Phil Spector.) It’s the singer, not the song, as the phrase goes, but “Born to Be With You” proves sometimes the song can transcend the singer, from a novelty girl group, to a country star, to acolytes of classic rock ‘n’ roll, and, of course, an oversized dance band in an undersized country.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
