The Bachelors

The Bachelors
The Bachelors in 1966
Background information
Origin	Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Pop, beat, country
Years active	1957–present
Labels	Universal, Decca, Philips, Pickwick, London, Galaxy, Deram and others
Website	Con & Dec the Bachelors John Stokes' the Bachelors
Members	Disputed - see article
Past members	Conleth (Con) Cluskey Declan (Dec) Cluskey John Stokes
Notable instruments
Con and Dec Cluskey: Guitar, keyboards, banjo, ukulele, harmonica John Stokes: Bass, harmonica

The Bachelors are a popular music group, originating from Dublin, Ireland.

The founding members of the group were Conleth (Con) Cluskey (born 18 November 1941), Declan (Dec) Cluskey (born 23 December 1942), and John Stokes (Sean James Stokes) (born 13 August 1940). In 1957 they formed their first band together: "The Harmonichords" (also seen as "The Harmony Chords"), a classically styled instrumental harmonica-act.

As the Harmonichords, they appeared on Hughie Green's 'Opportunity Knocks' on Radio Luxembourg and on the 'Ed Sullivan' TV Show St. Patrick's Day Special (filmed in Dublin, broadcast 15 March 1959), where they played "Danny Boy." They also played background music plus featured pieces in a 25-week radio comedy series called 'Odd Noises' on Radio Éireann featuring Eamonn Andrews. They changed their name to "The Bachelors" in 1960 at the suggestion of Dick Rowe, A&R at Decca Records, who reportedly recommended the name "because that’s the kind of boy a girl likes."

During the 1960s, they had many successful songs in music charts in Europe Australia, South Africa, South America, parts of the USSR, and the United States. Some of the most successful were "Charmaine" (1963); "Diane", "I Believe" (1964), "Ramona" and "I Wouldn't Trade You for the World" (1964); "Marie" (written by Irving Berlin) and "In the Chapel in the Moonlight" (1965). In 1965 they had the 'most played juke box track' with "The Stars Will Remember" from a film they made with then-current DJ Sam Costa. Their last big hit in the UK was a cover of the Paul Simon song "The Sound of Silence" which reached No. 3 in April 1966.