This week I have been mostly listening to Josef Lock - Hear My Song (1992).
Josef Locke was the stage name of Joseph McLaughlin (23 March 1917 - 15 October 1999), a tenor singer who was enormously popular in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the 1940s and 1950s.
Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, he started singing in local churches in the Bogside at the age of seven, and as a teenager added two years to his age in order to enlist in the Irish Guards, later serving abroad with the Palestine Police, before returning in the late 1930s to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Known as The Singing Bobby, he became a local celebrity before starting to work the UK variety circuit, where he played 19 seasons in the then popular English seaside resort of Blackpool. The renowned Irish tenor John McCormack (1894-1948) advised him that his voice was better suited to a lighter repertoire than the operatic one he had in mind, and urged him to find an agent, which he found in the form of the noted impresario Jack Hylton (1892-1965). Hylton couldn’t fit his full full name on the bill, thus Joseph McLaughlin was shotened to Josef Locke.
He made his first radio broadcast in 1949, and subsequently appeared on TV programmes such as Rooftop Rendezvous, Top of the Town, All-star Bill and The Frankie Howerd Show. He was signed to the Columbia record label in 1947, and his first releases were the two Italian songs Santa Lucia and Come back to Sorrento.
In 1947, too, Locke released Hear my song, Violetta, which became forever associated with him. His other songs were mostly a mixture of Irish ballads such as I’ll take you home again Kathleen, Dear old Donegal and Galway Bay, excerpts from operettas including The Drinking song (From The Student Prince), My Heart and I, and Goodbye, along with familiar Italian favourites such as Come back to Sorrento and Cara Mia.
In 1958 after appearing in five Royal Variety Performances, and while still at the peak of his career, the British tax authorities began to make substantial demands that Locke declined to meet. Eventually he fled Britain for for Ireland, where he lay low for several years. When his tax affairs were settled Locke retired to Co Kildare, Ireland only emerging for the occasional charity concert and reappearing in Blackpool in 1968, making his last public appearance in the 1970s.
On 22 March 2005 a bronze memorial to Locke was unveiled outside Derry City Hall by Phil Coulter and John Hume. The memorial features Locke, Blackpool Tower, Carnegie Hall, and the musical notes of the opening lines of Hear my song.
I am looking for a song my Grandfather used to sing. It is called, or contains the words “Like a Golden Dream”. We thought Josef Locke sang it but not sure. Could you help?
Yours sincerely.
The song you are thinking of is called SERENADE (COME BACK) written by Enrico Toselli. It has been recorded by Josef Locke, John McCormack - 1915, Efram Zimbalist - 1921, and even José Carreras to name a few. You will have no problem finding the José Carreras version, and probably even the John McCormack version, but as it wasn’t on Hear my Song it will be a challenge to find the Joseph Locke version. It appears to be available as SERENADE on an album called I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen which is available from CD universe and Amazon.com
LOL please donate to Ambrand Dot Com, my children need wine.
Here are they lyrics:
Like a golden dream in my heart, ever smiling
Lives the image fair of happy love I knew in days gone by
Still I seem to hear your laughter beguiling
Still to see the joy
The love light beaming from your radiant eye
Can my dreaming be in vain
Will my love ne’er come again? Ah come!
Shall we waste the golden hours of youth far apart
What care I for life without you by my side
Do not delay, the hours slip away
Your arms are my paradise
You and only you can fill my heart
Oh, star of my heaven
Come back and shed your light upon my way
Come back! Come back!
OR IN ITALIAN
Come un sogno d’or
scolpito è nel core
Il ricordo ancor’ di quell’amor
che non esiste più
Fu la sua vision
qual dolce sorriso
che più lieta fa,
col suo brillar, la nostra gioventù
Ma fu molto breve in me
la dolcezza di quel ben svani
quel bel sogno d’or
lasciando in me il dolor.
Cupo è l’avvenir sempre più tristi
i di la gioventù passata
sarà rimpianto
mi resta sol
sì rimpianto amaro e duol’ nel cor!
Oh raggio di sole
Sul mio cammino ahimè non brii li più
Mai più, mai più
i am searching for a song for an elderly friend of mine
he was singing the lyrics you belong to my heart
THat dsouns like
You belong to my heart, most popularally sung by Bing Crosby.
Augustin Lara, English lyrics by Ray Gilbert
You belong to my heart
Now and forever
And our love had its start
Not long ago
We were gathering stars while a million guitars played our love song
When I said “I love you”, every beat of my heart said it, too
’twas a moment like this
Do you remember?
And your eyes threw a kiss
When they met mine
Now we own all the stars and a million guitars are still playing
Darling, you are the song and you’ll always belong to my heart
’twas a moment like this
Do you remember?
And your eyes threw a kiss
When they met mine
Now we own all the stars and a million guitars are still playing
Darling, you are the song and you’ll always belong to my heart
i am looking for a song to be played at my grandfathers funeral,it is called,or contains the words “cantare”"catare”or something similar..i know it was definately sang by josef locke…please help!!
Can you settle a bet. Q. Did Josef Locke ever Sing in The Majorca Ballroom Crosshaven Co Cork.
Ah Crosshaven… my favourite village in South Cork… and I remember that Ballroom, but the belle epoch was before my formative years so I have no first hand information, I can only remember that building from the outside… the faded grandeur like the Hydro Majestic Hotel, NSW, Australia, but on a smaller scale.
Try posting a question over at
http://www.irish-showbands.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
Oh, thank you so much for the words to that song. My Daddy used to play it on the violin and also sing it my mam. It brings back so many happy memories of my childhood and how we used to have music in our house all the time. I was just sharing this with my sister and said “how sad it is that the children of today(including our own!) don’t have those wonderful memories as very few families do things together anymore” My Daddy used to have a Ceile and Oldtime band in 40’s 50’s and 60’s called “William or Billy Woods Ceili Band” I was very young and am not sure!
Thank you again for bringing the past back to me.
Yours
Olivia Dooley