| "A Pair of Brown Eyes" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Pogues | ||||
| from the album Rum Sodomy & the Lash | ||||
| B-side | "Whiskey You're the Devil" | |||
| Released | 18 March 1985 | |||
| Genre | Celtic rock | |||
| Length | 4:54 | |||
| Label | Stiff | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Shane MacGowan | |||
| Producer(s) | Elvis Costello | |||
| The Pogues singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"A Pair of Brown Eyes" is a single by The Pogues, released on 18 March 1985.[1] The single was their first to make the UK Top 100, peaking at Number 72.[2] It featured on the band's second album, Rum Sodomy & the Lash, and was composed by Pogues front man Shane MacGowan. Its melody is loosely based on that of “Wild Mountain Thyme" (also known as "Will Ye Go Lassie Go"), a song by Francis McPeake in a traditional folk style.
The song references the Johnny Cash version of the song "A Thing Called Love": "And on the jukebox Johnny sang / About a thing called love". It also references Irish country music singers Ray Lynam and Philomena Begley's version of "My Elusive Dreams": "While Ray and Philomena sang / Of my elusive dream".