Express & Star

We're not taking the Mick! Listen to former Wolves manager McCarthy's pop single

There are times in this job when a story lands in your lap that is so perfect that it makes you tremble.

Published

You find yourself itching to get to a keyboard to type it up, so pristine is it in its content.

If it happens to resonate strongly with your readership, then obviously, so much the better.

This is one of these situations, writes Pete Cashmore.

See also: 'He needs a mullet': Indie icon Jonn's verdict on Mick McCarthy single

Because this week it came to light that – and even as I type the words, I have to remind myself that this is genuine, this actually happened – Mick McCarthy, the man who took Wolverhampton Wanderers into the top flight, has released a pop single.

Super Mick made a pop record.

The cassette of Mick McCarthy's hit single Did You Ever?

What's even better than that, is that it was a Top 20 hit in Northern Ireland. What's even better than that is that it was a duet, and the other half of the duo went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest within a year. Honestly, we really don't know where to begin.

Okay, so what can we tell you about it? Well, it's called Did You Ever? and it's a cover version of a 1971 single by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, which made number 2 in the UK charts.

It's a jaunty call-and-response song with vaguely nonsensical lyrics in which the vocalists – a man and a woman – ask each other slightly suggestive questions, the exact nature of which are never fully revealed due to the other vocalist interrupting and answering before we know what they're being asked.

"Did you ever..?

"Not so much, that you could notice.

"Could you estimate how many...?

"Eight or nine.

"Will you do it any more?

"As soon as you walk out the door."

That kind of thing. All very silly.

Well, in this version, the woman vocalist is one Linda Martin, and her in-song paramour is Super Mick.

The song came out in 1991, before the internet arrived, and as such audio material of it has been pretty hard to find – until this week.

The label on which the record came out is long since defunct – perhaps, one might say were one being unkind, because they were reduced to releasing singles by Mick McCarthy – but a website in Ireland was able to secure both a rough audio file of the song itself, via Mick's co-vocalist, and a cover of the cassette version of the single, which shows Mick rocking a purple sweatshirt that is almost as unbelievable as this story.

With the cat out of the bag, Mick has spoken on the subject, and revealed that he can't even remember the title of the song, believing that he actually did a cover version of Sinatra's biggest hit, These Boots Were Made For Walkin'.

Linda Martin sang with Mick on the hit single

One gets the distinct impression that he is more than a little embarrassed by his short-lived pop career.

"I wondered when that might appear," he said.

"It was for charity. It's just one of those things.

"When things are going well for you, someone comes and asks you if you'll do it and you wonder at the time if it will come back to haunt you.

"Let me tell you, they had to feed me red wine to get me to sing!"

Interestingly, the song came to pass because of another famous face from the Irish music scene.

Original – Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood

Linda Martin said: "Louis Walsh was my manager at the time and he had the brainwave of recording with a footballer. Mick McCarthy was the chosen victim and he was up for a laugh.

"I'd no nerves about the project at all. Louis also found the song which had been a huge hit for Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood.

"Mick was totally brilliant, professional and great craic, and if truth be known he has a very good voice."

And it seems like the Irish public agreed with Linda's assessment, because when Did You Ever? was released in 1991, it reached number 15 in the Irish charts.

Buoyed by this success, Linda went on to represent Ireland at the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest, and her song Why Me? came out on top, and went one to be a number one in Ireland, proving that Mick clearly had the kind of Midas touch that he – briefly – had at the Molineux.

Martin claims that she gave a copy of the single to Jason McAteer and that she believes it was played on the Ireland team bus during Mick's time as manager.

"I believe he was destroyed," she added.

But Mick, being Mick, is quick to pour scorn on the story.

"He never played it," he said. "It's probably just as well because he was hanging by a thread as it was!"

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.