Come on Eileen is a song by the English group Dexy's Midnight Runners and credited to Dexy's Midnight Runners and the Emerald Express, released in the UK in June 1982 as a single from their second studio album Too-Rye-Ay.
Come on Eileen reached number one in the USA and was their second number one hit in the UK, following 1980's Geno. The song was produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley and was initially claimed to be written by Kevin Rowland, Jim Paterson and Billy Adams, although Rowland later stated that the essence of the tune should be attributed to Kevin Archer. Come on Eileen won Best British Single at the 1983 Brit Awards. There are various versions of the song; some, in addition to the main section, feature either a Celtic fiddle-solo intro or an a cappella coda, both based on Thomas Moore's Irish folk song Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms. The main section begins with the Celtic-style fiddle played over a drum beat, with the bass guitar and piano providing accompaniment. Dexy's Midnight Runners are an English pop rock band from Birmingham, with soul influences, who achieved major commercial success in the early to mid-1980s. They are best known in the UK for their songs Come on Eileen and Geno, both of which peaked at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, as well as six other top-20 singles. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dexys went through numerous personnel changes over the course of three albums and 13 singles, with only singer/songwriter/co-founder Kevin Rowland remaining in the band through all of the transitions and only Rowland and "Big" Jim Paterson (trombone) appearing on all of the albums. The band broke up in 1987. After two failed restart attempts, Dexy's was reformed in 2003 with new members, as well as a few returning members from the band's original lineup and became known as Dexys Mark II.
