Phil Coulter quips he's in ‘danger of being cool’ as JADE samples ‘Puppet on a String’ for debut ‘Angel of My Dreams’

“Never saw this coming! Heard about it from one of my grandkids, super excited. She tells me today it’s gone straight in to number 2 in the charts. Does this mean I’m in danger of being ‘cool’ at my advanced stage?” asked the legendary Derry singer-songwriter, composer and producer.

‘Puppet on a String’ famously won the Eurovision Song Contest when performed by the barefooted Sandy Shaw in Vienna in 1967 before going on to top charts in 11 countries worldwide.

The hit record has been an enduring feature of radio playlists for over 50 years and appeared on the soundtrack of Edgar Wright’s 2021 picture ‘Last Night in Soho’ starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp among others.

Its opening lines, ‘I wonder if one day that, you'll say that, you care, If you say you love me madly...’ have now been sampled by Thirlwall, who performs solo under her first name JADE, and can be heard at the beginning of her debut solo single ‘Angel of My Dreams.’ The sample fades just before the title lines, ‘I'll gladly, Be there, Like a puppet on a string’.

‘Puppet on a String’ is one of the Abercorn Road-native’s most famous tunes from his hitmaking heyday of the 1960s and 1970s when alongside his song-writing partner Bill Martin he produced ‘Congratulations’ for Cliff Richard and ‘Shang-a-Lang’ for the Bay City Rollers.

Phil produced some of the most important bands of the past century in The Dubliners and Planxty, and wrote the definitive Derry song, ‘The Town I Loved So Well’.

His English language version of Jean-Pierre Bourtayre and Claude François’ ‘Parce que je t'aime, mon enfant’ was a hit for Elvis Presley as ‘My Boy’ in 1974.

Jade, aged 31, from Tyneside, rose to fame as a member of Little Mix, which won the reality TV music contest The X Factor in 2011.

‘Angel of My Dreams’ is produced by US ‘poptician’ Mike Sabath. Sabath has worked on records with Lizzo, Meghan Trainor, Camila Cabello, Niall Horan, Sabrina Carpenter, Zara Larsson, Shawn Mendes, Jonas Brothers and Liam Payne.

28 pictures November 1997: Phil Coulter at St. Joe’s, Derry City players do ‘The Fully Monty’ and ‘Sunset Heights’ is shot