In my father’s case, it was a recording of him singing – accompanied by a piano – On the Street Where You Live from the film/musical My Fair Lady. I like to think that’s why he made the record: his brief showbiz career preserved for two minutes and 38 seconds. It still sounded like he was singing through an aural fog: like time itself was muffling his voice. Some of them made him sound Martian, but one managed, more or less, to separate his voice from the tinny piano. And after a bit more tweaking, there he was: his voice reaching me across all that time.

Source: The Irish Times January 11, 2026 09:00 UTC