Val Doonican
b. Michael Valentine Doonican, 3 February 1928, Waterford, Eire. Doonican learned to play the mandolin and guitar as a boy, and later toured northern and southern Ireland in various bands before travelling to England in 1951 to join an Irish vocal quartet, the Four Ramblers. He wrote the group's vocal arrangements as well as singing and playing guitar in their BBC radio series RIDERS OF THE RANGE. In the late '50s, on the advice of Anthony Newley, he went solo, and appeared on television in BEAUTY BOX, and on radio in DREAMY AFTERNOON; later re-titled, A DATE WITH VAL. In 1963 he was recommended to impresario Val Parnell, by comedian Dickie Henderson, and gained a spot on ITV's top-rated television show SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM. He made an immediate impact with his friendly, easy-going style and in 1964 commenced an annual series for BBC television, which ran until the '80s. He soon became one of the most popular entertainers in the UK, and was voted Television Personality Of The Year three times. The closing sequence of his TV show, in which he sang a song while seated in a rocking chair, was especially effective. The idea was later used as a self-depreciating album title: VAL DOONICAN ROCKS, BUT GENTLY. Later, in the age of video tape, he still preferred his shows to be transmitted ‘live’. His first record hit, Walk Tall, in 1964, was followed by a string of chart entries through to the early '70s, including The Special Years, Elusive Butterfly, What Would I Be, Memories Are Made Of This, If The Whole World Stopped Loving, If I Knew Then What I Know Now and Morning. Equally popular, but not chart entries, were a number of novelty songs such as O'Rafferty's Motor Car, Delaney's Donkey and Paddy McGinty's Goat, written by the prolific English team of Bob Weston & Bert Lee. By the early '90s Doonican was semi-retired—performing laps of honour, as he put it. In 1993 he released a video, ‘a tribute to his favourite artists’, entitled THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC. 
Further reading: THE SPECIAL YEARS, Val Doonican.