Daniel O’Donnell looks back ‘Through the Years’

You can measure Daniel O’Donnell’s incredible 40-year career through his impressive sales feats if you like…

Daniel is a singer who’s achieved 12 gold-selling albums and another seven which have gone silver. Daniel has scored 16 Top 10 albums and 11 Top 30 singles, including the gorgeous Top 10 hit Give A Little Love.

Go to a concert and witness the rapturous response that shows the admiration Daniel O’Donnell engenders in people, a closeness to his audience legendary among fellow performers, evidence of how Daniel O’Donnell has been a true phenomenon ever since his debut album The Boy From Donegal was released in 1984.

Perhaps the biggest testament, at least in statistics, to how Daniel O’Donnell has stayed at the top of his game for so long is that he’s the only artist to have placed a different album in the chart every year since the gold-selling From The Heart launched his career in the UK in 1988. If you’re already familiar with Daniel’s music, his new compilation Through The Years is chance to reacquaint yourself with the grace and charm of hits including Whatever Happened To Old Fashioned Love, Footsteps and Crush On You.

Released on October 11th  – Through The Years – The Very Best Of Daniel O’Donnell is the perfect go-to album for Daniel fans both new and old, featuring 42 tracks across his 40-year career plus a bonus live CD of his concert recorded at The Millenium Forum in Derry in 2023.

But let’s start from the beginning. If you only really know Daniel’s name and the stereotype of him as a crooner, then welcome to the reality of his songs. Be prepared for someone equally at home with country, folk, inspirational, Irish music and rock & roll – witness his raucous take on Singing The Blues and a cheeky version of Smokie’s Living Next Door To Alice. Through The Years has it all.

Daniel O’Donnell

“My music is all interlinked, there’s a thread running through it. Country, Irish, rock & roll: it all hangs together so that none of it is out of place. If you pull at the thread of my songs, none of it will fall out.” – Daniel O’Donnell

These 40 songs exemplify how Daniel has an instinct for knowing how to make his music sound just right. Whatever style a song is in, he’s able to give every word in a lyric its own life.

“I don’t try to change a song from its original setting. If it’s been successful, why change it? At the same time, I don’t try to copy the singer who sang it before. If I’m going to be comfortable, I have to sing it my way.” – Daniel O’Donnell

That instinct is a large reason why Daniel has remained so prolific and maintained his record-breaking number of albums since he first charted. He reasons: “There’s no end to the songs I want to sing. That’s why I’ve been able to record so much music.”

Daniel’s passion for diverse music has been there since he was a boy. He was equally into country singers such as Loretta Lynn, traditional Irish vocalist Dolores Keane, and easy-listening stars such as Andy Williams.

Growing up in the Donegal fishing village of Kincasslagh helped foster the community spirit key to Daniel’s closeness with his audience.

“What I do now is an extension of the community feeling I had growing up,” he reflects. “After a show, there are only so many people who want to wait to meet you. Some people only want to meet you once. The others – when I go onstage, I see lots of people I recognise, who I’d never have met if I don’t meet people after a show. If you see people regularly, you’re going to get to know them.” – Daniel O’Donnell

Daniel O’Donnell

Although he’s been a star for so long, fame wasn’t Daniel’s intention when he quit a career in banking to focus on music in his early twenties. The turning point arrived with his second album Two Sides Of Daniel O’Donnell in 1985. Released on respected Irish label Ritz, it’s home to Our House Is A Home and My Donegal Shore on the new compilation.

“I thought I was going to give up music,” admits Daniel. “It just wasn’t working financially. Ritz’s managing director, Mick Clerkin, said I was starting to get airplay, that I should give it a little more time. Sure enough, the show bookings started to increase.

“I started to do well in 1986. That’s when I thought: ‘This is me now, I can do this.’ I’ve never contemplated anything else since, but I never saw my success being as big as it is. All I wanted was to make a living from music. If I could survive as a musician, that would be good enough for me.”

Such modest aims have helped Daniel stay strong in making the music he wants to make, rather than chase hits. “There hasn’t been a period where I’ve thought: ‘Oh no, I didn’t achieve that,'” he laughs. “Instead, one thing has led to another. That’s made for a lovely journey. The success I’ve had in America, Australia, New Zealand, I never envisaged going there.”

Before 1986, Daniel had tested himself in Britain in cities such as Leeds, Glasgow and Birmingham with strong Irish communities. He played shows throughout the country after, his fanbase growing until his mainstream breakthrough arrived in 1992. Originally by John Prine, I Just Want To Dance With You nearly didn’t happen, as the album Follow Your Dream was thought to have been finished. Daniel remembers: “I said to the producer: ‘There’s one more song I’d like to do.’ The reaction was: ‘Sure, why not?’ I Just Want To Dance With You was a throwaway, really. But I thought there was something different about it.”

It became Daniel’s first Top 20 single, leading to a memorable first appearance on Top Of The Pops. Also on the show were rave collective The Shamen, at No 1 that week with Ebeneezer Goode. Daniel chuckles: “They couldn’t figure me out and I couldn’t figure them out. I think they were as afraid of me as I was of them!”

Daniel O’Donnell

The purity of Daniel’s music stood out so much among rave and grunge music that he was soon teased by comedy shows including Father Ted and Chewin’ The Fat. He has the good grace to laugh it off, saying: “I never thought I’d be well enough known for people in entertainment to reference me. My wife Majella recently saw a play, Woman On The Verge Of HRT, centred around people coming to see me. It’s amazing to be referenced in something I have nothing to do with.”

For people who recognised the variety and hope at the centre of Daniel’s music, the audiences kept growing. International success in North America soon followed, with Daniel revealing: “As I had in the UK, I started in Irish community places like Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago. But now I mainly play the Midwest in America. I’d have to look for Irish people at my American shows now.”

The deluxe edition of Through The Years adds a live disc, recorded at a concert at Derry’s Millennium Forum. “Playing live and the interaction with the audience is what I’ve always enjoyed most,” insists Daniel. “All the rest is a by-product of live shows.”

Nonetheless, the instinct for what worked well in the studio has continued. He beat Josh Groban and Westlife to recording You Raise Me Up, commenting of his 2003 hit: “I thought there was something special about that song. I remember saying: ‘If this isn’t a hit for me, it’s going to be huge for somebody else.'”

Daniel even became a cult club success in Ireland thanks to his 2011 version of singer-songwriter Billy O’Dwyer’s tune Tipperary Girl – a move that delighted Daniel, who grins: “That was unlikely! It was incredible, but young people in Ireland are open to all types of music and it’s an uptempo song.” Success has led to friendships with Cliff Richard and Loretta Lynn and enabled Daniel to record with county great Charley Pride on an uplifting version of Crystal Chandeliers.

If the boy from Donegal couldn’t have seen that coming when he started 40 years ago, he’s having far too much fun to stop now. As he says: “I’ve always enjoyed what I do. Now, I’m just enjoying all of it.” So will you: here’s the perfect introduction to a singer whose music is the perfect way to enjoy all life has to offer.

Pre order the album here https://danielodonnell.lnk.to/throughtheyears