The song was released and it reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in July 1968. [7] His recording was released in the United States on Diamond Records; however, it failed to chart. a b c Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.221. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. He kept working until late into his life, on stage and screen, and touring with a one-man show. In 2011 he made his West End musical debut in Dreamboats and Petticoats, and joked: “I’m hoping to win a most promising newcomer award.” Three years later, O’Connor was invited to be a guest on the Christmas special but was allowed on stage only as the show ended and so never got to sing. It turned out that O’Connor was in on the joke. “I used to send Eric and Ernie jokes to insult me with and people would come up to me and say: ‘Did you hear what he said?’ and I’d say under my breath: ‘Yes I know, I wrote that one.’” His divided parental inheritance allowed the joke that he was “the only O’Connor to have had a bar mitvah”, although he drew musically more on his patrimony, not only in 1-2-3 O’Leary but also recordings of Danny Boy.

Confirmed: Des O'Connor to Star as The Wizard in THE WIZARD OF OZ from May 22; Show to Close in September", BroadwayWorld, 22 May 2012, accessed 21 February 2021O'Connor appeared at the Glasgow Empire, MGM Grand, Las Vegas, the Opera House, Sydney, and the O'Keefe Centre, Toronto, and made more than one thousand solo appearances at the London Palladium. [4] Morecambe and Wise rip into Des O’Connor on their sketch show. It turned out O’Connor was in on the joke

All three of his biggest-selling records were sad ballads, a man lamenting a love lost for some reason, and this helped to establish, for his fans, a sympathetic, self-deprecating, likeable image that lasted throughout his career. The One and Only Des O'Connor". ITV. 19 March 2012. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012 . Retrieved 15 November 2020.The active participation of the target helped somewhat to neutralise the cruelty, and, suggesting to the audience that he was a sport, further enhanced O’Connor’s reputation as a nice guy. Despite being presented on Morecambe & Wise, to up to 30 million viewers, as a tuneless loser, O’Connor by 1969 was celebrated enough to be a guest on ITV’s top-rating biographical entertainment show, This is Your Life.

Happy Holiday / Winter Wonderland / Snowy White Snow and Jingle Bells / Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reind… Desmond “Des” O'Connor (12 January 1932 – 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter. He recorded a total of 36 albums and had four top-ten UK singles, including the number-one hit single “I Pretend”, which sold over 16 million copies worldwide. O'Connor starred in mainstream television shows in almost every year from 1963 until the 2000s, a feat that only one other television personality has achieved worldwide (U.S. game show host Bob Barker, who hosted mainstream television shows from 1956 until 2007, with 1966–1972 being in syndication).In April 2012, ITV aired The One and Only Des O'Connor, a one-off show that celebrated O'Connor's 80th birthday, with guests including Katherine Kelly, Olly Murs, Robert Lindsay, and Melanie Sykes. [10] Young, Graham (1 February 2009). "How Des O'Connor will never forget Buddy Holly". BirminghamLive. [ dead link] Caroline Cleaveley (2010). Memories of United Counties Part 1: Northampton. Silver Link Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85794-343-6. I was dubbed a Casanova but I’d only been out with three girls in my life and I married them all,” he told an interviewer in 1996. Not quite. Among the women he dated was the singer Shirley Bassey, whom he took on a boating lake in Leeds and to the pictures in the early 1960s. Years later he asked her what she had thought of the experience. “I thought you were gay,” she replied.