Dexys Midnight Runners

Dexys Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen

(7" single, Mercury, 1982 – Included on the album “Too-Rye-Ay”, Mercury, 1982)

You know those friends you grew up with since childhood, the ones you always thought could become something more? Well, Eileen is one of them. In fact, she's the perfect embodiment of that idea. Just like Emma Watson/Sam, the captivating protagonist of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", who helps Logan Lerman/Charlie break out of his shell of shyness. Perhaps it's no coincidence, then, that director Stephen Chbosky chose to resurrect the ghost of Eileen precisely to seal one of the film's key scenes: at the school dance, Charlie is stuck in the corner, paralyzed by his insecurities and the certainty that high school "is going to be even worse than middle school", but the sight of Sam bursting onto the dance floor shouting "they're playing good music!" over those swelling violins is like a call of the wild, pushing him to dive into the fray, to let himself be swept up in a liberating dance. From that point on, everything changes, even though Sam will remain nothing more than a burning teenage crush.

Who knows if the friend of Kevin Rowland, leader of Dexys Midnight Runners, looked anything like Emma Watson. Either way, more than thirty years after its release, it's fair to say that "Come On Eileen" has been "something more" than a faithful childhood companion. A perfect "pop" song, thanks to that refrain that lodges itself irreversibly in your brain, but also something deeper, something that sets you free and sweeps you away, just like Charlie's dance. Because "Come On Eileen" is pure magic, there's no way around it. With all the tricks of the trade thrown in. Like that brilliant intuition of the pause from which the rhythm builds back up, growing more and more insistent until it turns impetuous just before the final chorus. Or like the repetition of that mysterious "too-rye-ay", a legacy of the Irish lullaby "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral", leading into the choral explosion.

So who's behind this accidental hit, dropped right in the middle of the dazzling Eighties?

To find out, we need to head to Birmingham, already the cradle of Duran Duran, as well as the glorious Aston Villa Football Club. It's here that Dexys Midnight Runners were born, a post-punk combo with folk and (northern) soul roots, whose name references an amphetamine popular among mods: dexedrine. After a solid debut ("Searching For The Young Soul Rebels"), followed however by a mass defection of members, Rowland — an egocentric little genius with a temper worthy of Johnny Rotten — reinvented the band with a gypsy-proletarian look and an incredibly "hybrid" setup: an r'n'b rhythm section, soul horns and traditional folk instruments (fiddle, banjo, violins, accordion), in homage to his Irish roots. The string section, in particular, would go on to form its own separate unit, under the name Emerald Express.

And in Rowland's book of memories there's also "A Man Like Me", a 1972 track by a soul group called Jimmy James & The Vagabonds: it would become the blueprint on which "Come On Eileen" took shape. Those soul vibrations merge with a Celtic soul right from the intro, with a fiddle solo (echoing the Irish folk song "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" by Thomas Moore), soon pushed forward by the drumming and the rhythmic backbone of bass and piano. Rowland's neurotic, sobbing voice — a sort of Guinness-soaked Robert Smith — enters with the famous opening line "Poor old Johnnie Ray", a real-life figure, known in music history as the rock'n'roll crooner of the Sixties who "moved a million hearts in mono" ("Moved a million hearts in mono"), making mothers cry ("Our mothers cried"). Johnny had seemed a bit sad in a radio appearance, hence that "poor", somewhere between pity and mockery.

But Johnnie Ray's (mis)adventures end there. Because with an abrupt cut we're immediately thrown into the English provinces, where the (non-)love story between young Kevin and family friend Eileen plays out. Who, on top of it all, despite being only 13, has grown up rather nicely ("You're grown... So grown") and now, in that dress, stirs up thoughts that feel downright sinful for a boy raised by Irish parents under strict Catholic principles: "With you in that dress, my thoughts (I confess)/ Verge on dirty". A chorus that's already an instant classic, though on its own it wouldn't be enough to account for the song's greatness. The secret, in fact, lies in that absurd blend of violins, banjo and piano, weaving a bouncing celtic-gypsy dance driven by the call-and-response between the lead vocal and the backing vocals, set to the melody of "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral". A breathless dash through constant accelerations and tempo changes, all the way to the explosion of the choral crescendo. A triumph.

For years we've wondered whether Eileen actually gave in to those flattering words ("We are far too young and clever"), whether she truly convinced herself she could break the monotony of provincial England through the sheer force of that post-adolescent bond, thus escaping the grey fate of her fellow townsfolk (“These people ‘round here/ Were beaten down, eyes sunk in smoke, dried faces/ So resigned to what their fate is”). But to find out, all it would have taken was reading an interview Rowland gave to Rolling Stone in 1983. "In the song I framed it in terms of sex, but it was always a pure relationship. She's now happily married and lives in Australia."

The Eileen of Dexys Midnight Runners, on the other hand, did take that dream flight, and on both sides of the Atlantic too, hitting No. 1 on the UK Chart (it would be the best-selling single of 1982 in Britain, and best single at the Brit Awards) and even knocking Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" off the top of the US Billboard Hot 100. A worldwide hit, boosted also by Julian Temple's great video, which shows the band strumming away in overalls, with scarves and blackened faces on a street corner, while Máire Fahey, sister of Siobhan of Bananarama, plays the longed-for Eileen. And of course good old Johnnie Ray couldn't be left out, honoured at the start with some vintage footage.

Perhaps precisely because it stood so far apart from the spirit of its time, "Come On Eileen" would go on to become a classic, living on for the following thirty years through films, TV series, commercials and all sorts of uses, including a "space-age" appearance in 2005, played to greet Space Shuttle Discovery commander Eileen Collins. There would be no shortage of covers either, from the ska-punk version by Save Ferris to the ill-fated one by 4-4-2, who turned it into "Come On England", a football anthem that wasn't enough to save England from yet another defeat, at Euro 2004.

But nothing, of course, will ever be able to recapture the magic of the original. Just like those teenage loves that never come back.

Poor old Johnnie Ray

Sounded sad upon the radio

Moved a million hearts in mono

Made our mothers cry

Sang along, who’d blame them?

You’re grown (You’re grown up)

So grown (So grown up)

Now I must say, more than ever (Come on, Eileen)

Toora-loora-toora-loo-rye-ay

And we can sing just like our fathers

Come on, Eileen, oh, I swear (Well he means)

At this moment, you mean everything

With you in that dress, my thoughts (I confess)

Verge on dirty

Ah, come on, Eileen

Come on, Eileen

These people ‘round here

Were beaten down, eyes sunk in smoke, dried faces

So resigned to what their fate is

But not us (No, never)

No, not us (No, never)

We are far too young and clever (Remember)

Go toora-loora-toora-loo-rye-ay

Eileen, I’ll hum this tune forever

Come on, Eileen, oh, I swear (Well he means)

Ah, come on, let’s take off everything

That pretty red dress, Eileen (Tell him yes)

Ah, come on, let’s

Ah, come on, Eileen

That pretty red dress, Eileen (Tell him yes)

Ah, come on, let’s

Ah, come on, Eileen, please

(Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay

Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay, toora-toora-too-loora)

Now you are grown, and now you have shown, oh, Eileen

(Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay

Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay, toora-toora-too-loora)

You’re grown (Said, come on, Eileen, these things they are real)

So grown (And I know how you feel)

Now I must say more than ever

Things ’round here will change

(Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay

Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay, toora-toora-too-loora)

I said toora-loora-toora-loo-rye-ay

(Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay

Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay, toora-toora-too-loora)

Come on, Eileen, oh, I swear (Well he means)

At this moment, you mean everything

With you in that dress, my thoughts (I confess)

Verge on dirty

Ah, come on, Eileen

Come on, Eileen, oh, I swear (Well he means)

At this moment, you mean everything

(In that dress) Whoa, my thoughts (I confess)

Well, they’re dirty

Come on, Eileen

Come on, Eileen, whoa-oh-oh (Well he means)

Oh-ho-ho-ho (Everything)

Ah come on, Ah come on

Ride the wave of great music

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15/02/2026