Friday, August 13, 2010
"A Good Heart" by Feargal Sharkey
Birthday wishes go out today to the man partially responsible for one of the more wonderful one-hit wonders of the Eighties, Feargal Sharkey.
Written by accomplished hit-maker Maria McKee, it was nonetheless Sharkey's version of A Good Heart which went to the top of several international pop charts, including Australia and The Netherlands as well as the UK; although McKee wrote the song about her relationship with Benmont Tench - keyboard player with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - like any good pop song its message is universally relatable. It probably helps that for the first few weeks it was in heavy rotation almost everyone thought it was being sung by a woman, anyway.
The track achieved its greatest notoriety when Sarah Ferguson said it was her favourite in an interview on the eve of her wedding to Prince Andrew; the fact that it disappeared from the radio almost overnight is entirely a coincidence.
A n y w a y... Try as he might, Sharkey's quaver was unable to make so much as a peep with his follow up, You Little Thief, which - get this! - was written by Benmont Tench in reply to Maria McKee's original salvo and is also, in my arrogant opinion, a much better song. To quote Bart Simpson: 'George Burns was right... Show business is a hideous bitch goddess.'
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haha, 'You little thief'- I'd forgotten about that!
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine has insisted for ooooh, I'd say 13 years, that Feargal Sharkey has an uncredited role in True Romance, as the guy to whom Clarence is explaining his Elvis theory. If anyone can provide me with concrete proof that it is NOT Feargal Sharkey, as it clearly isn't, I'll wear their ass as a hat for all eternity.
I'll take that bet!
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten about the song too, until doing the research into this piece. I included the link to the video under the title in the post.
In the meantime here's Feargal Sharkey's page at IMdB - and no sign of True Romance anywhere; by the way, does your friend not know that Internet Movie Database was created specifically to settle these kinds of disputes?
Guh! Welcome to the 21st Century!