Danny Boy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Background

The words to "Danny Boy" were written by English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly in 1910. Although the lyrics were originally written for a different tune, Weatherly modified them to fit the "Londonderry Air

Londonderry Air

Londonderry Air is an air that originated from County Londonderry in Ireland. It is popular among the Irish diaspora and is very well known throughout the world. The tune is played as the victory anthem of Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games. "Danny Boy" is a popular set of lyrics to the...

" in 1913, after his sister-in-law in the U.S. sent him a copy. Ernestine Schumann-Heink

Ernestine Schumann-Heink

Ernestine Schumann-Heink was a celebrated Austrian, later American, operatic contralto, noted for the size, beauty, tonal richness, flexibility and wide range of her voice.- Early life:...

made the first recording in 1915. Weatherly gave the song to the vocalist Elsie Griffin

Elsie Griffin

Elsie Griffin was an English opera singer, best known for her performances in the soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....

, who in turn made it one of the most popular songs in the new century.

Jane Ross of Limavady

Limavady

Limavady is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. It lies east of Derry and south west of Coleraine. It had a population of 12,135 people in the 2001 Census, an increase of some 17% compared to 1991...

is credited with collecting the melody, the "Londonderry Air", in the mid-19th century from a local fiddle player.

History

"Danny Boy" is considered to be an unofficial signature song and anthem, particularly by Irish American

Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...

s and Irish Canadian

Irish Canadian

Irish Canadian are immigrants and descendants of immigrants who originated in Ireland. 1.2 million Irish immigrants arrived, 1825 to 1970, at least half of those in the period from 1831-1850. By 1867, they were the second largest ethnic group , and comprised 24% of Canada's population...

s.

"Danny Boy" enjoys popularity as a funeral song but, as it is not liturgical

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

, its suitability for funerals is sometimes contested. In 1928, Weatherly suggested that the second verse would provide a fitting requiem for the actress Ellen Terry

Ellen Terry

Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....

Meaning

There are various theories as to the true meaning of "Danny Boy". Some listeners have interpreted the song to be a message from a parent to a son going off to war or leaving as part of the Irish diaspora

Irish diaspora

thumb|Night Train with Reaper by London Irish artist [[Brian Whelan]] from the book Myth of Return, 2007The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa,...

. The 1918 version of the sheet music included alternative lyrics ("Eily Dear"), with the instructions that "when sung by a man, the words in italic should be used; the song then becomes "Eily Dear", so that "Danny Boy" is only to be sung by a lady". In spite of this, it is unclear whether this was Weatherly's intent, or simply a publisher's note; Weatherly did, however, acknowledge that "Danny Boy" was sung "all over the world by Sinn Feiners and Ulstermen alike", and noted that the song had "nothing of the rebel song in it, and no note of bloodshed".

Lyrics

(There are a number of variations on these lyrics.)

Recordings

"Danny Boy" has been recorded various times by a variety of artists. Several versions performed by notable artists are listed below in chronological order.

Year	Artist	Album (or single)	Notes
1939	Glenn Miller Glenn Miller Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...		Performed as part of the Carnegie Hall concert on October 6 and recorded and released on the RCA Victor label.
1939	Gracie Fields Gracie Fields Dame Gracie Fields, DBE , was an English-born, later Italian-based actress, singer and comedienne and star of both cinema and music hall.-Early life:...	Shipyard Sally (soundtrack)	Also performed for Jess Yates Jess Yates Jess Yates was a British television presenter and producer... 's TV show Stars on Sunday in 1978.
1940–1962	Judy Garland Judy Garland Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...	Little Nellie Kelly Little Nellie Kelly Little Nellie Kelly is a 1940 musical comedy film based on the stage musical by George M. Cohan which was a hit on Broadway in 1922 and 1923. The film was written by Jack McGowan and directed by Norman Taurog... (1940) (soundtrack) Miss Showbusiness (1955)	Also performed live during concerts at Theatre Royal, Dublin Theatre Royal, Dublin At one stage in the history of the theatre in Britain and Ireland, the designation Theatre Royal or Royal Theatre was an indication that the theatre was granted a Royal Patent without which theatrical performances were illegal... and Palace Theatre, New York shows. Her last recording of "Danny Boy" was in London, for Capitol-label The London Sessions, in 1962.
1944	Art Tatum Art Tatum Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...	Fine and Dandy
1945	Bing Crosby Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....	Merry Christmas	Paired with I'll Be Home for Christmas on the original record.
1950	Al Hibbler Al Hibbler Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...	"Danny Boy"
1953	Slim Whitman Slim Whitman Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. , known professionally as Slim Whitman, is an American country music singer and songwriter, known for his yodelling abilities. He has sold in excess of 120 million albums in unit sales and has had numerous successful recordings...
1958	Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE was a German-born Austrian/British soprano opera singer and recitalist. She was among the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf.-Early life:Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike...	"Danny Boy"	Recorded at Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner... , London, England.
1958	Sam Cooke Sam Cooke Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...	Sam Cooke
1959	Sleepy Matsumoto		Instrumental saxophone rearrangement.
1959	Conway Twitty Conway Twitty Conway Twitty , born Harold Lloyd Jenkins, was an American country music artist. He also had success in early rock and roll, R&B, and pop music. He held the record for the most number one singles of any act with 55 No. 1 Billboard country hits until George Strait broke the record in 2006...		Rockabilly version that reached № 10 on the U.S. Pop charts.
1959	Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...		Recorded live at Carnegie Hall.
1960	Link Wray Link Wray Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer....
1960 1961	Jim Reeves Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves , better known as Jim Reeves, was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well-known for being a practitioner of the Nashville sound...	Album Tall Tales and Short Tempers (Slow Version) "Danny Boy" (Single Version)
1961	Bill Monroe Bill Monroe William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader... & His Blue Grass Boys	Bluegrass Ramble
1962	Maureen O'Hara Maureen O'Hara Maureen O'Hara is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne...	Maureen O'Hara Sings Her Favourite Irish Songs
1962	Connie Francis Connie Francis Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...	Connie Francis Sings Irish Favorites
1963	CHANG Loo (張露)	An Evening With Chang Loo	Performed in alternate English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... and Mandarin Chinese language, under title name of Danny Boy/牧童的懷念, on EMI Columbia Columbia Graphophone Company The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Under EMI, as Columbia Records, it became a very successful label in the 1950s and 1960s... label. Meaning：The Shepherd Boy's Memories
1964	Joe Feeney Joe Feeney Joe Feeney was an American tenor singer who was a member of The Lawrence Welk Show television program.Born to an Irish-American family in Grand Island, Nebraska, Feeney first started singing as a boy soprano in his hometown's church choir and after high school, he landed a guest appearance on the...		Performed numerous times on The Lawrence Welk Show.
1964	The Seekers The Seekers The Seekers are an Australian folk-influenced pop music group which were originally formed in 1962. They were the first Australian popular music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States...	The Seekers (also known as Roving with The Seekers)
1964	Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...	"Danny Boy"	Reached № 76 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1965	Johnny Cash Johnny Cash John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...	Orange Blossom Special	Remastered and reissued in 2002.
1965	The Bachelors The Bachelors The Bachelors are a popular music group, originating from Dublin, Ireland.-Career:The founding members of the group were Conleth Cluskey , Declan Cluskey , and John Stokes...	More Great Song Hits
1967	Ray Price		Nashville-sound version that was a top-10 hit on Billboards Hot Country Singles chart.
1969	Cher Cher Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...	Jackson Highway
1969–1999	Tom Jones Tom Jones (singer) Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...	Las Vegas to London: The Best of Tom Jones Live	Performed on the first episode of his weekly television show.
1972	Roy Orbison Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...	Memphis Memphis (album) Memphis is an album recorded by Roy Orbison for MGM Records. The album was released in November 1972 .-Track listing:Side one#"Memphis, Tennessee" – #"Why A Woman Cries" –...
1974	Les Humphries Singers Les Humphries Singers The Les Humphries Singers was a 1970s musical group formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1969 by the English born Les Humphries , who had been inspired to do his own version of the Edwin Hawkins Singers.The Les Humphries Singers dissolved at the end of the...	Kansas City	Featuring John Lawton (vox).
1975	Joan Baez Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....	Diamonds & Rust Diamonds & Rust Diamonds & Rust is a 1975 album by Joan Baez. Baez is often regarded as an interpreter of other people's work, and on this album she covered songs by Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, The Allman Brothers, and Jackson Browne...	Recorded as part of a medley, with Stephen Foster Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century... 's "I Dream of Jeannie".
1976	Elvis Presley Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....	From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee	Recorded during the Jungle Room Sessions, Graceland, Memphis, TN. The song was one of Elvis's and his father Vernon's favourites and was played at his funeral.
1976	Boots Randolph Boots Randolph Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit, "Yakety Sax"...	Boots Randolph Boots Randolph Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit, "Yakety Sax"... .
1978	Sam Sorono	Sings Tom Jones' Greatest Hits
1978 1991	The Kelly Family The Kelly Family The Kelly Family is an Irish-American-European music group consisting of a multi-generational family, who play a repertoire of rock, pop and folk music. They have had chart and concert success in Europe and other parts of the world, especially in Germany, the Benelux countries, Scandinavia, Eastern...	"Danny Boy" Honest Workers Honest Workers Honest Workers is the fifth regular studio album by The Kelly Family, released in 1991.-Track listing:# "Danny Boy" - 3:45# "Hey, Mr. Big Time" - 3:46# "Honest Workers" - 5:07# "Motherless Child" - 5:25# "A Hard Day's Night" - 2:46...
1980	Hazel O'Connor Hazel O'Connor Hazel O'Connor is an English singer-songwriter and actress. She is the daughter of a soldier from Galway who settled in England after World War II to work in a car plant...	Sons And Lovers
1985	King's Singers King's Singers The King's Singers is a British a cappella vocal ensemble who celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2008. Their name recalls King's College in Cambridge, England, where the group was formed by six choral scholars in 1968. In the United Kingdom, their popularity peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s...	Watching the White Wheat	A cappella version.
1987	Tony Bennett Tony Bennett Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....	Jazz	Featuring Stan Getz Stan Getz Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott... on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound... on piano, Ron Carter Ron Carter Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that... on bass, and Elvin Jones Elvin Jones Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan.... on drums.
1988	Brush Shiels Brush Shiels Brendan "Brush" Shiels is an Irish musician from County Dublin, best known for being the frontman of Gary Moore's first band, Skid Row. Brush Shiels had a TV show on RTÉ called Off yer Brush and was at one point managed by Louis Walsh...	Fields of Athenry	Blues version.
1989	Kate Smith Kate Smith Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith was an American Popular singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s.Smith was born in Greenville, Virginia...	The Irish Album	Reissued in 1989.
1990	Carly Simon Carly Simon Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...	My Romance My Romance (album) My Romance is an album by the U.S. singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released in 1990. It is her fourteenth studio album, and her sixteenth album overall, as well as being her second album devoted to standards.-Track listing:...
1991	The Swingle Singers The Swingle Singers The Swingle Singers are a mostly a cappella vocal group formed in 1962 in Paris, France by Ward Swingle with Anne Germain, Jeanette Baucomont, Jean Cussac and others. Christiane Legrand, the sister of composer Michel Legrand, was the group's lead soprano through 1972. Until 2011 the group...	Around the World
1991	My Friend The Chocolate Cake My Friend The Chocolate Cake My Friend The Chocolate Cake is an Australian musical group based in Melbourne. They have recorded seven albums since being founded in 1989 by David Bridie and Helen Mountfort, members of Not Drowning, Waving...	My Friend The Chocolate Cake	Chamber pop version. Reissued in 1995.
1992	Nana Mouskouri Nana Mouskouri Nana Mouskouri , born Ioánna Moúschouri on October 13, 1934, in Chania, Crete, Greece, is a Greek singer who has sold about 300 million records worldwide in a career spanning over five decades, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She was known as Nána to her friends and...	Songs of the British Isles
1993	Mary O'Hara Mary O'Hara Mary O'Hara is an Irish soprano and harpist from County Sligo. O'Hara achieved fame on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her recordings of that period influenced a generation of Irish female singers who credit O'Hara with influencing their style, among them Carmel...	Song for Ireland	Harp version.
1994	Black 47 Black 47 Black 47 are a New York City based celtic rock band with Irish Republican sympathies, whose music also shows influence from reggae, hip hop, folk and jazz...	Home of the Brave	A variation that retains only the melody and one of the original verses.
1996	Don Walser Don Walser Donald Ray Walser was an American country music singer. He was known as a unique, award-winning yodeling "Texas country music legend."- Music career :...	Texas Top Hand Dare To Dream (compilation)
1996	Joseph Flummerfelt		Recorded at the Festival dei Due Mondi Festival dei Due Mondi The Festival dei Due Mondi ' is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958... and featuring the Westminster Choir.
1996	Eric Clapton Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...	"Change the World Change the World "Change the World" is a song written by Tommy Sims, Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick which was recorded by Eric Clapton with backing by Babyface for the soundtrack of the 1996 film Phenomenon. The song won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year , as well as Best Male Pop Vocal... "
1999	Charlotte Church Charlotte Church Charlotte Maria Church is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter. She rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than 10 million records worldwide including over 5 million in the United States...	Voice of an Angel Voice of an Angel Voice of an Angel is the title of the debut music recording/album featuring the voice of 12-year-old soprano Charlotte Church, released in 1998.-Track listing:#"Pie Jesu" #"Panis Angelicus" #"In Trutina"...
1999	Diana Krall Diana Krall Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...	Tears of Stone	Featuring The Chieftains The Chieftains The Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:... .
1999	Harry Connick Jr	Come By Me Come by Me Come By Me is a big band album by American artist Harry Connick Jr., released in 1999, eight years after his previous big band recording, Blue Light, Red Light....	Big-band version. Featured in the movie Life Without Dick Life Without Dick Life Without Dick is a direct-to-video 2002 American black comedy film written and directed by Bix Skahill. The screenplay focuses on the relationship that develops between an incompetent hitman and a woman who accidentally kills her boyfriend when she discovers he's leaving her for another... and Memphis Belle Memphis Belle (film) Memphis Belle is a 1990 film directed by Michael Caton-Jones and written by Monte Merrick, starring Matthew Modine and Eric Stoltz and introducing Harry Connick Jr. in his screen debut... .
1999	The Irish Tenors	Irish Tenors
1999	Finbar Wright Finbar Wright Edward Finbar Wright , known popularly as Finbar Wright, is a popular music singer, songwriter, poet from County Cork, Ireland....	Opera Concert

2011 - Jackie Evancho
Jackie Evancho
Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho is an American child singer described as a classical crossover artist. After entering some talent competitions, issuing an independent album, Prelude to a Dream, and attracting interest on YouTube, she gained wider popularity in 2010 with her performances in the...

in connection with her album Dream With Me
2011 - Girls' Generation
Girls' Generation
Girls' Generation is a nine-member South Korean electropop girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2007. The nine members are: Taeyeon , Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun...

sang this song in their "1st Arena Tour in Japan" (May 31 - July 18, 2011, 6 cities 14 performances)
2010 - Charlie Hunter
Charlie Hunter
for the New Zealand racehorse trainer and driver see: Charlie HunterCharlie Hunter is an American guitarist, composer and bandleader....

on his album "Public Domain"
2010 - Colm Wilkinson
Colm Wilkinson
Colm Wilkinson is an Irish tenor, best known for originating the role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and for playing the title role in The Phantom of the Opera .Due to his association with these musicals, he reprised the role of...

on his album "Broadway And Beyond The Concert Songs"
2010 - Patricia Kelly of The Kelly Family
The Kelly Family
The Kelly Family is an Irish-American-European music group consisting of a multi-generational family, who play a repertoire of rock, pop and folk music. They have had chart and concert success in Europe and other parts of the world, especially in Germany, the Benelux countries, Scandinavia, Eastern...

included an acoustic version on her album It Is Essential
2009 - Lee Ji Eun
Lee Ji Eun
-Music career:IU debuted on a Korean music program called M! Countdown in September 18, 2008. She released her first mini-album, Lost and Found, in which the most famous song was the title track, "Missing Child." in September 23, 2008 However, the album was not commercially successful. It wasn't...

on the original soundtrack of Korean movie '"Paradise"
2009 - Culann's Hounds
Culann's Hounds
Culann's Hounds is a traditional Irish folk band from San Francisco. Founded in 1999 by Steve Gardner and Michael Kelleher as The Irish Bastards , the band began playing gigs and soon adopted the more broadly appealing name.-Origins:...

on their album One for the Road
2008 - Tim Janis
Tim Janis
Tim Janis is an American composer with 10 Billboard charting CDs, over one million albums sold, four National Public Television Specials, and a constant touring presence.-Career:...

on his album "An Enchanted Evening" and performed by Fionnuala Gill
2008 - Celtic Thunder
Celtic Thunder
Celtic Thunder is a singing group composed of male soloists who perform both solo and ensemble numbers. Celtic Thunder debuted in August 2007 at The Helix in Dublin, Ireland...

sung a cappella on their album "Act Two"
2008 - The Ten Tenors
The Ten Tenors
The TEN Tenors are an Australian musical ensemble who have toured world-wide. In a typical set, the group performs Queen standards, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", and "The Show Must Go On"; tracks from Meat Loaf medley; AC/DC and much more...

recorded it on their album "Nostalgica"
2008 - Amy Walker
Amy Walker
Amy Frances Walker is an American actress, singer, and co-founder of the ConnectedFilm project.-Early life:Walker was born in Seattle, Washington...

recorded the song in a deeply emotional version posted on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
2007 - Franc D'Ambrosio
Franc D'Ambrosio
Franc D'Ambrosio , is an American singer and actor, best known for his role in the stage version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. He also played the adult Anthony Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part III.Affectionately known as Phantom's "The Iron Man of The Mask", Franc D'Ambrosio...

's album "Franc D'Ambrosio's Hollywood - Songs from the Silver Screen".
2007 - Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra
Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide...

's UK album Treasure and the international counterpart Celtic Treasure include her rendition of the song.
2007 - Daniel Johns
Daniel Johns
Daniel Paul Johns is an Australian musician, vocalist, composer, guitarist, and pianist, best known as the frontman of the rock band Silverchair. He is also part of The Dissociatives...

from Silverchair
Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Merewether, Newcastle with the line-up of Ben Gillies on drums, Chris Joannou on bass guitar and Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars. The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo...

and Bernard Fanning
Bernard Fanning
Bernard Joseph Fanning is a musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and frontman of Australian alternative rock band Powderfinger from its formation in 1989 to its dissolution in 2010....

from Powderfinger
Powderfinger
Powderfinger was an Australian rock band that formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their breakup the band lineup consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bassist John Collins, and drummer Jon Coghill....

recorded a duet version of this song
2007 - Damien Leith
Damien Leith
Damien Leo Leith is an Irish Australian singer–songwriter. He was the winner of the Network Ten music contest Australian Idol 2006Damien has also guest co-hosted 'The Morning Show' on Network Ten on 18 July 2011.He was born in Ireland and now lives in Australia with his Australian wife, Eileen...

, winner of Australian Idol 2006, featured an acoustic version of his homeland's traditional song on his debut album, Where We Land
Where We Land
Where We Land is the first studio album by Australian Idol 2006 winner Damien Leith. It was released by Sony BMG in Australia on 18 August 2007, and in Ireland on 28 September 2007. Leith produced the album for seven months and created the album entirely with acoustic songs...

. The version also features Leith on guitar and was originally recorded for a fan. Also recorded a raw version on his latest album Where We Land
2006 - Michael Londra, on his album "CELT" and on Youtube clip
2006 - Great Big Sea
Great Big Sea
Great Big Sea is a Canadian folk-rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year-old Irish, English, and French heritage...

,on the concert DVD "Courage & Grit & Patience" Sean McCann sings Danny Boy
2006 - Finbar Wright
Finbar Wright
Edward Finbar Wright , known popularly as Finbar Wright, is a popular music singer, songwriter, poet from County Cork, Ireland....

, on his album "The Essential Finbar Wright" produced by Mike Batt
Mike Batt
Michael Philip "Mike" Batt is a British songwriter, musician, producer and Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry...
2006 - Tir na n'Og
Tir na n'Og
Alfapop is is a Serbian power pop band from Belgrade.The band was formed in 2000 under the name Tir na n'Og . Initially, the band performed Irish folk and Celtic rock, and released one Celtic rock-oriented album...

, on their debut self-titled album
Tir na n'Og (album)
Tir na n'Og is the debut album of the Serbian Irish folk/Celtic rock band Tir na n'Og released in 2006.- Track listing :# "Danny Boy" - 03:12# "Put" - 04:39# "River" - 03:37...
2006 - Till Brönner
Till Brönner
Till Brönner is a German jazz musician, trumpet player, singer, composer, arranger and producer. He has a unique jazz approach influenced by bebop and fusion jazz, but also modern pop music, movie soundtracks , country music and even German pop songs...

on his album Oceana
2006 - Thomas Quasthoff
Thomas Quasthoff
Thomas Quasthoff is a German bass-baritone. Although his reputation was initially based on his performance of Romantic lieder, Quasthoff has proven to have a remarkable range from the Baroque cantatas of Bach to solo jazz improvisations.-Biography:Quasthoff was born in Hildesheim, Germany, with...

on his album A Romantic Songbook
2006 - The Poxy Boggards on Whiskey Business
2006 - Natalie MacMaster
Natalie MacMaster
Natalie MacMaster, CM is an award-winning fiddler from the rural community of Troy in Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada who plays Cape Breton fiddle music....

, Cape Breton fiddler, on her Yours Truly album with vocals by Michael McDonald
Michael McDonald (singer)
Michael McDonald is a five-time Grammy Award winning American singer and songwriter. McDonald is known for a soulful baritone singing style and a multi-octave range. He began his career singing back-up vocals with Steely Dan...
2006 - Great Big Sea
Great Big Sea
Great Big Sea is a Canadian folk-rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year-old Irish, English, and French heritage...

recorded it for their live concert DVD Courage & Patience & Grit
Courage & Patience & Grit
Courage & Patience & Grit is a DVD/CD set released by the band Great Big Sea on November 14, 2006. It contains video of the live performance from a concert at the Empire Theatre in Belleville, Ontario along with music videos for the songs "Captain Kidd", "When I Am King", "Lukey", and "Shines Right...
2005 - The Choirboys (boyband)
The Choirboys (boyband)
The Choirboys are an English boy band, made up of cathedral choristers. In 2005, a talent search was held to find a young chorister to bring choral music into the then current music scene, however, the judges could not decide which of its three finalists should be given the recording contract and...

recorded the song on their album self-titled album
2005 - Celtic Woman
Celtic Woman
Celtic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble conceived and assembled by Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show Riverdance...

on their self-titled album (initially performed by Méav who also did the same thing for her Celtic Journey solo album and 2007 concert)
2005 - Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel
Bryn Terfel Jones CBE is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro and Leporello, but has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Wagner....

on his album titled Bryn Terfel Sings Favourites (2003), reissued as Bryn double CD Special Edition
2004 - Finbar Wright
Finbar Wright
Edward Finbar Wright , known popularly as Finbar Wright, is a popular music singer, songwriter, poet from County Cork, Ireland....

,Ronan Tynan,Anthony Kearns on The Irish Tenors album "Heritage"
2004 - Brian Kennedy
Brian Kennedy (singer)
Brian Edward Patrick Kennedy is an Irish singer-songwriter and author, known for his ballads, and has represented Ireland at Eurovision 2006. He is the younger brother of musician Bap Kennedy.-Personal life:...

, recorded it on his Live in Belfast album
2003 - Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy is a British born violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and he has performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti...

, recorded it on his Nigel Kennedy's Greatest Hits album with Liam O'Flynn
Liam O'Flynn
Liam O'Flynn is a master uilleann piper and prominent Irish folk musician. In addition to an impressive solo career and his work with the Irish traditional group Planxty, O'Flynn has recorded with many prominent international musical artists, including Mark Knopfler, the Everly Brothers, Enya,...

and Osian Ellis
2002 – Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

, who had recorded another version of the song in 1965, recorded it for American IV: The Man Comes Around
American IV: The Man Comes Around
American IV: The Man Comes Around is the fourth album in the American series by Johnny Cash, released in 2002. The majority of songs are covers which Cash performs in his own spare style, with help from producer Rick Rubin...

, his final album to be released during his lifetime.
2002 - Mireille Mathieu
Mireille Mathieu
Mireille Mathieu is a French chanteuse, and pop singer. Hailed in the French press as the successor to Édith Piaf, she has achieved great commercial success, recording over 1200 songs in nine different languages, with more than 120 million records sold worldwide.-Childhood to early...

, recorded the French version titled L'enfant De L'Irlande on her Amoureusement Votre 3 CD box set
2002 - Megan Mullally
Megan Mullally
Megan Mullally is an American actress and singer.After working in the theatre in Chicago, Mullally moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and began to appear in supporting roles in film and television productions. She made her Broadway debut in Grease in 1994 and she has since appeared in several Broadway...

(Karen of Will and Grace) recorded it on her album Big as a Berry.
2002 - Eva Cassidy
Eva Cassidy
Eva Marie Cassidy was an American vocalist known for her interpretations of jazz, blues, folk, gospel, country and pop classics. In 1992 she released her first album, The Other Side, a set of duets with go-go musician Chuck Brown, followed by a live solo album, Live at Blues Alley in 1996...

's recording of the song was posthumously published on the album Imagine
2002 - Declan Galbraith
Declan Galbraith
Declan John Galbraith is an English singer. He is best known for his 2002 hit single, "Tell Me Why", which peaked at #29 in the UK Singles Chart.-Early influence:...

The opening track on his debut album Declan
2002 - Chloë Agnew
Chloë Agnew
Chloë Alexandra Adele Emily Agnew is an Irish singer who is one of the current members of the Celtic music group Celtic Woman as the youngest member. She comes from Knocklyon, County Dublin where she lived with her mother Adele "Twink" King and younger sister Naomi...

on her self-titled album
2002 - Brobdingnagian Bards
Brobdingnagian Bards
-History:Marc Gunn, formerly of Austin Texas' alternative rock bands Skander and Breastfed, released a solo album featuring himself on autoharp and Andrew McKee on recorder in 1998...

recorded it for their album Songs of Ireland
2002 - Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...

recorded it on his Danny Boy album re-released as Andy Williams-Danny Boy/Wonderful World 2 CD set on the Collectible label
2002 - Ruben Blades
Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...

recorded on the Grammy-winning album "Mundo".
2001 - Off Kilter
Off Kilter
Off Kilter is a Celtic-rock band. Off Kilter was formed in 1997, and has been performing regularly at Epcot ever since. Their first album, Off Kilter included some traditional songs like "Dirty Old Town" and "Fields of Athenry" as well as covers of popular rock songs generally from Canadian artists...

, add their Celtic rock influence to it on their album Etched In Stone, and then again on 2004's album The Live Tracks
2000 - Tommy Fleming
Tommy Fleming
Tommy Fleming is an Irish singer and philanthropist. He rose to fame in the early 1990s after he was asked to tour the US with Phil Coulter. He soon established himself as a solo artist, he found his greatest success singing traditional Irish music with his forceful and dynamic bel canto tenor...

recorded it on his Contender album
2000 - Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...

sang it at her Live at Wolf Trap concert (CD & DVD)

Off Kilter
Off Kilter
Off Kilter is a Celtic-rock band. Off Kilter was formed in 1997, and has been performing regularly at Epcot ever since. Their first album, Off Kilter included some traditional songs like "Dirty Old Town" and "Fields of Athenry" as well as covers of popular rock songs generally from Canadian artists...

Celtic
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...

-rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

on their Etched in Stone CD 2001.
Sung by Luba Mason and Ruben Blades
Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...

one the grammy-winning CD Mundo (Sony-Columbia 2002)
Sung by Celtic Thunder
Celtic Thunder
Celtic Thunder is a singing group composed of male soloists who perform both solo and ensemble numbers. Celtic Thunder debuted in August 2007 at The Helix in Dublin, Ireland...

on their second CD, Celtic Thunder: Act II
Wolfe Tones
Wolfe Tones
The Wolfe Tones are an Irish rebel music band who incorporate elements of Irish traditional music in their songs. They are named after the Irish rebel and patriot Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, with the double entendre that a wolf tone is a spurious sound...

recorded it live on their Wolfe Tones The Troubles two CD set.
Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...

on One From the Road (released in 1979; re-released on a compilation Stardust/Honeysuckle Rose
Honeysuckle Rose (song)
"Honeysuckle Rose" is a 1928 song composed by Fats Waller, whose lyrics were written by Andy Razaf. Fats Waller's 1934 recording was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999....

/One From The Road)
Tir na n'Og
Tir na n'Og
Alfapop is is a Serbian power pop band from Belgrade.The band was formed in 2000 under the name Tir na n'Og . Initially, the band performed Irish folk and Celtic rock, and released one Celtic rock-oriented album...

, recorded it on their 2006 self-titled debut album
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...

included it in a medley of Irish tunes as part of the title track on their Black Rose: A Rock Legend
Black Rose: A Rock Legend
Black Rose: A Rock Legend is the ninth studio album by Irish band Thin Lizzy. Released in 1979, it has been described as one of the band's "greatest, most successful albums"....

album in 1979. Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....

and Phil Lynott
Phil Lynott
Philip Parris "Phil" Lynott was an Irish musician who first came to prominence as a founding member, principal songwriter, and frontman of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy....

often played the tune in jamming sessions in their early days. Under the name of Funky Junction, Thin Lizzy had previously recorded an instrumental version, titled Dan, on their Tribute to Deep Purple album in 1972.
The St. Olaf Choir on their album A Choral Tapestry
The Pogues
The Pogues
The Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...

on the soundtrack for the 1987 film Straight to Hell, with Cait O'Riordan on vocals. Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan
Shane MacGowan
Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan is an Irish musician and singer, best known as the original singer and songwriter of The Pogues.-History:...

also recorded a version of the song with his solo band The Popes which appeared on their Christmas Party E.P.
The Gary Urwin Jazz Orchestra recorded it on their album Kindred Spirits
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....

performed the song, adding a third (political) verse, on whistler and piper Davy Spillane
Davy Spillane
Davy Spillane is a songwriter and a player of uilleann pipes and low whistle.early yearsDavy was born in Dublin in 1959 . At the age of 12 he started playing the uilleann pipes. His father encouraged him and inspired him with his love of all music genres...

's album The Sea of Dreams
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...

, recorded it on her album It's A Man's World (original release: Mercury Stereo SR 611220; released as an audio CD on Verve label in April 2002)
Ronan Tynan
Ronan Tynan
Ronan Tynan is a singer in the classical Irish style. He is most famous for his renditions of "God Bless America" at Yankee Stadium during important New York Yankees games, such as Opening Day, nationally-televised games, the last game at the old Yankee Stadium, and playoff games...

's solo rendition plays while photographs of the 343 members of the New York City Fire Department
New York City Fire Department
The New York City Fire Department or the Fire Department of the City of New York has the responsibility for protecting the citizens and property of New York City's five boroughs from fires and fire hazards, providing emergency medical services, technical rescue as well as providing first response...

who perished in the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

are shown in the closing minutes of the documentary film 9/11
9/11 (film)
9/11 is a 2002 American documentary film about the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, in which two planes crashed into the buildings of the World Trade Center from the point of view of the New York City Fire Department...
Quartetto Gelato
Quartetto Gelato
Quartetto Gelato is a Canadian new classical quartet currently composed of Peter DeSotto, Liza McLellan, Alexander Sevastian and Colin Maier, and based in Toronto, Ontario...

twice, first on their debut CD Quartetto Gelato and again on Quartetto Gelato Travels the Orient Express
Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...

recorded it in Ballad for Americans and Great Songs of Faith, Love and Patriotism. Vanguard Records.
Nolan Strong & The Diablos
Nolan Strong & The Diablos
Nolan Strong & The Diablos were a Detroit-based R&B and doo-wop vocal group best known for its hit songs "The Wind" and "Mind Over Matter." The group was one of the most popular, pre-Motown, R&B acts in Detroit during the mid 1950s, through the early 1960s....

featured on the album Fortune of Hits Vol. 2 on Fortune Records
Fortune Records
Fortune Records was a family operated, independent record label located in Detroit, Michigan from 1946 to 1995. The label owners were Jack and Devora Brown, their son Sheldon Brown recorded for the label...

.
Maureen Tucker
Maureen Tucker
Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker is a musician best known for having been the drummer for the rock group The Velvet Underground.- The Velvet Underground :...

of The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...

recorded it for her album Dogs Under Stress
Dogs Under Stress
Dogs Under Stress is the fourth studio album by Maureen Tucker. It was released in 1994.- Track listing :All tracks written by Maureen Tucker except where noted.#"Crackin' Up" – 4:52#"Me, Myself and I" – 2:37#"I've Seen into Your Soul" – 5:40...
Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...

on her folksongs album Come To The Fair.
Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...

recorded two different versions.
Frank Patterson
Frank Patterson
Frank Patterson was an internationally renowned Irish tenor following in the tradition of singers such as Count John McCormack and Josef Locke. He was known as "Ireland's Golden Tenor".- Early life :...

, recorded the song for his album Ireland in Song. His rendering is featured in a gangland hit sequence in the movie Miller's Crossing
Miller's Crossing
Miller's Crossing is a 1990 American gangster film by the Coen brothers and starring Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, Jon Polito and John Turturro...

by Joel and Ethan Coen
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...

.
Deirdre Shannon
Deirdre Shannon
Deirdre Gilsenan is an Irish singer who has toured with a variety of Celtic music groups, such as Anúna, the Celtic Tenors and Celtic Woman...

has a version on her album Deirdre Shannon
Deirdre Shannon
Deirdre Gilsenan is an Irish singer who has toured with a variety of Celtic music groups, such as Anúna, the Celtic Tenors and Celtic Woman...
Daniel Rodriguez
Daniel Rodriguez
Daniel Rodríguez is an American operatic tenor from New York City. He became known as "The Singing Policeman" in his former work with the New York City Police Department, due to his role as one of the department's designated National Anthem singers...

"The Spirit of America" 2002 Manhattan Records.

In popular culture

Sung by the character of Kim Walker, Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias....

in the film Because of Him (1946).
Sung by Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...

in the Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...

film, He Laughed Last
He Laughed Last
He Laughed Last is a 1956 film by Blake Edwards. A Runyonesque Roaring 20s musical comedy about a show girl who circumstance casts as an unlikely mob boss. Edwards adapted the film for his 1999 off-Broadway show, Big Rosemary. Edwards directed Cady Huffman in the Lucy Marlow role from the original...

(1956).
Sung by the Irish-American character Maureen McBain in Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...

's 1968 spaghetti western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...

Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the West is a 1968 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone for Paramount Pictures. It stars Henry Fonda cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader with a...

, even though the movie was set before the song was written.
Sung by Glenn Hughes in "Can't Stop the Music
Can't Stop the Music
Can't Stop the Music is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by Nancy Walker. It is a pseudo-biography of disco's Village People which bears only a vague resemblance to the actual story of the group's formation...

" (1980); his character sang this for an audition.
Sung in the 1989 film Family Business
Family Business (film)
Family Business is a 1989 film directed by Sidney Lumet with a screenplay by Vincent Patrick, based on his novel. It stars Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick.-Plot synopsis:...

, first at a funeral during the film and then again at the end at the wake of Jessie McMullen (played by Sean Connery).
Featured throughout the score of Memphis Belle
Memphis Belle (film)
Memphis Belle is a 1990 film directed by Michael Caton-Jones and written by Monte Merrick, starring Matthew Modine and Eric Stoltz and introducing Harry Connick Jr. in his screen debut...

(1990) and sung by the character Sgt. Clay Busby played by Harry Connick, Jr.
Harry Connick, Jr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. is an American singer, big-band leader/conductor, pianist, actor, and composer. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with...
Sung in Into the West
Into the West (film)
Into the West is a 1992 Irish fantasy film about Irish Travellers, directed by Mike Newell and written by Jim Sheridan.The film has received several awards for Best Film, Best European Film, and Outstanding Family Foreign Film.-Synopsis:...

(1992) by one of the main characters Ossie, played by Ciarán Fitzgerald, to make money for chips.
Rockabilly version performed by Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group The Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with a jazz-oriented big band.-Career:Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York...

of Stray Cats
Stray Cats
Stray Cats are an American Rockabilly band formed in 1980 by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer , upright bassist Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia and the U.S...

in The Great White Hype
The Great White Hype
The Great White Hype is a 1996 film directed by Reginald Hudlin. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Berg, Damon Wayans, Jeff Goldblum, Jon Lovitz, Cheech Marin, John Rhys-Davies, Salli Richardson and Jamie Foxx....

(1996) as the anthem of the boxer "Irish" Terry Conklin portrayed by Peter Berg
Peter Berg
Peter Berg is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is known for directing films such as Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, The Rundown, Hancock and Battleship. He also developed the television series Friday Night Lights, which was adapted from the film he directed. As an actor...

.
In Brassed Off (1996) the song was played by The Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
Sung by the crowd in the 1997 film The Boxer
The Boxer (film)
The Boxer is a 1997 film by Irish director Jim Sheridan. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson, the film centers on the life of a boxer and former Provisional IRA Volunteer, Danny Flynn, played by Day-Lewis, who is trying to "go straight" after his release from prison...

before the hyped up match where both Catholics and Protestants are present.
The song is sung in the beginning of the Titanic Town
Titanic Town (film)
Titanic Town is a 1998 film. Ciarán Hinds and Julie Walters play Aidan and Bernie McPhelimy, a mother and father caught in the Northern Ireland Troubles in Belfast . Bernie's close friend is killed in the crossfire and so she becomes involved in the peace process.-Their children:*Nuala O'Neill ......

(1998)
Featured in the New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

film River Queen
River Queen
River Queen is a 2005 New Zealand film directed by Vincent Ward and starring Samantha Morton, Kiefer Sutherland and Cliff Curtis. The film opened to mixed reviews but performed well at the local box-office.-Plot:...

(2005) sung in both Māori
Maori language
Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...

and English.
Sung by the character Morris 'Morrie' Kessler in the 1990 film Goodfellas
Goodfellas
Goodfellas is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese...

.
Sung several times during the film Daniel's Daughter
Daniel's Daughter
Daniel's Daughter is a 2008 Canadian television film directed by Neill Fearnley. The film is about a magazine editor who returns to her small hometown to fulfill a request from her estranged father.- Plot :...

.
Instrumental version played at the restaurant in Return to Me
Return to Me
Return to Me is a romantic movie rated PG. Return to Me was directed by Bonnie Hunt and starred David Duchovny as Bob and Minnie Driver as Grace...

(2000) starring Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver
Minnie Driver is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, as well as for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches.- Early life...

and David Duchovny
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...

.
Sung by Juliette Lewis
Juliette Lewis
Juliette Lewis is an American actress and musician. She gained international fame for her role in the 1991 thriller Cape Fear for which she was nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress...

in the Jan Kounen
Jan Kounen
Jan Kounen is a Dutch-born French film director and producer.In France, he is mostly known for his films Dobermann , Blueberry, l'experience secrete and 99 francs ....

film Blueberry, l'experience secrete (aka Renegade, 2004).
Sung by Mark Renton's friends and family after he was spared from being sent to prison in Trainspotting
Trainspotting (film)
Trainspotting is a 1996 British satirical/drama film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The movie follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980s economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life...

(1996)
In his faustian 1994 song "The Man Who Wrote Danny Boy", Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson (musician)
Joe Jackson is an English musician and singer-songwriter now living in Berlin, whose five Grammy Award nominations span from 1979 to 2001...

implies that the author of "Danny Boy" created an immortal "perfect refrain".
Maeve Ryan (Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher
Helen Gallagher is an American actress, dancer, singer and makeup artist.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, she was raised in Scarsdale, New York for several years until the Wall Street crash which heralded the Great Depression, and her family moved to the Bronx. Her parents separated and she was...

) performed the song on the final episode of Ryan's Hope
Ryan's Hope
Ryan's Hope is an American soap opera, revolving around 13 years of trials and tribulations within a large Irish American family in the Riverside district of New York City. It aired from July 7, 1975 to January 13, 1989 on ABC...
In Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White , a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series...

episode 3-12 "Half Measures", Mike the Cleaner describes an abusive husband whom Mike would regularly have to haul off to jail. During one of these incidents, after the man had beaten his wife into the hospital for the umpteenth time, he begins whistling "Danny Boy" in the back of Mike's police car, driving Mike into such a rage that he pulls off and threatens the man's life on a deserted road.
In the Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...

Season Three, Episode Seven episode "Offspring", Darla, played by Julie Benz
Julie Benz
Julie M. Benz is an American actress, best known for her roles as Darla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and as Rita Bennett on Dexter, for which she won the 2006 Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television...

, sings a short segment of the song.
Is sung by Carmine Ragusa (Eddie Mekka
Eddie Mekka
Eddie Mekka is an American actor most famous for his role as Carmine Ragusa on the sitcom Laverne & Shirley.-Life and career:...

) on a 1978 episode of Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from January 26, 1976, to May 10, 1983...

. It occurs at the end of Season 3's Episode #15 ("The Slow Child"), during a St. Patrick's Day party.
Ray Carling
Ray Carling
DC/DS/DI Raymond Milton "Ray" Carling is a fictional character in BBC One's science fiction/police procedural drama, Life on Mars and its spin-off Ashes to Ashes.-Life on Mars:...

sings this with Shaz Granger in episode 5 of the third series of Ashes to Ashes
Ashes to Ashes (TV series)
Ashes to Ashes is a British science fiction and police procedural drama television series, serving as the sequel to Life on Mars.The series began airing on BBC One in February 2008. A second series began broadcasting in April 2009...

at a police fundraising gala.
Danny Boy, rendered in jazz style, was the theme song for the long running television show The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show is an American sitcom which ran from 1953-1957 on ABC and from 1957-1964 on CBS...

, also known as Make Room For Daddy, from 1953 to 1964.
Sung by Jack Rudolph (Steven Weber
Steven Weber (actor)
Steven Robert Weber is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the television show Wings which aired throughout the 1990s on NBC.-Early life:...

) many times in the show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was an American dramedy television series created and written by Aaron Sorkin. It ran for 22 episodes.The series takes place behind the scenes of a live sketch comedy show on the fictional television network NBS , whose format is similar to that of NBC's...

in the beginning of several of the scenes when he encounters Danny Tripp
Danny Tripp
Daniel Tripp is a fictional character on the US television series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, played by Bradley Whitford.-Personal history:Danny Tripp was educated at Northwestern University...

throughout the series. Rudolph also once sings the lead line as "Matty Boy" when he encounters Danny's partner, Matt Albie
Matt Albie
Matthew Albie is a fictional character on the U.S. TV series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, played by Matthew Perry.-Personal history:Matt began working at Studio 60 in 1997, but remained largely anonymous until 1999, when Harriet Hayes joined the cast...

.
A recurring theme throughout The Adventures of Lano and Woodley
The Adventures of Lano and Woodley
The Adventures of Lano and Woodley is an Australian comedy television show starring the comedic duo of Lano and Woodley , consisting of two series which aired on ABC TV from 1997 to 1999...

, appearing as a jazz song and a campfire song, among others.
In the Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...

episode Random Shoes
Random Shoes
"Random Shoes" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast on 10 December 2006. It is the ninth episode of the first series.-Synopsis:...

, Eugene's father sings the song at Eugene's funeral.
The song is a favorite of the character Bernard O'Toole, from Tekkaman Blade
Tekkaman Blade
or Teknoman is an anime series, released in 1992 and 1995 in both Japanese and English language versions.-Plot:During the year 2300 AD , otherwise known as United Earth Year 192, the Earth is under attack from an extraterrestrial enemy known as the Radam...

. The old soldier often sung it to himself, and D-Boy's support mecha, Pegas, ended up recording the song in his memory banks during his first appearance.
In the first series of Round the Twist
Round the Twist
Round the Twist is a Logie Award-winning Australian children's television series about three children and their widowed father who live in a lighthouse and become involved in many magical adventures....

, characters could hear unseen ghosts on clarinet, saxophone and violin perform part of the song in each episode. Eventually, a choral rendition by the entire cast in the series' climax brought forth the ghosts to save the show's lighthouse from being destroyed.
In the Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...

episode "A Pharaoh to Remember
A Pharaoh to Remember
"A Pharaoh to Remember" is episode seventeen of Futuramas third season. It originally aired on March 10, 2002.-Plot:After a pool heist Bender committed is attributed to a human felon, Bender grows concerned that he will be doomed to obscurity, and sets off to rectify the situation...

", Zoidberg sings this song at Bender's fake funeral, in order to "express his sorrow". Bender is angered by this because Zoidberg is singing a song about "some guy named Danny" instead of him.
On The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...

Beaker
Beaker (Muppet)
Beaker is a Muppet character from The Muppet Show. He is the shy, long-suffering assistant of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, and is likewise named for a piece of laboratory equipment, although his shape more closely resembles an Erlenmeyer flask....

, Animal
Animal (Muppet)
Animal is the primitive man and crazed drummer of Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, the fictional band from The Muppet Show. He is one of the Muppets originally created by Michael K...

and The Swedish Chef (try to) sing it. The Chef sings in his usual mock-Swedish gibberish; Animal can only remember the first three words; Beaker performs the melody well, but in his usual "mee-mee-mee" speech.
In the fifth season of Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width
Never Mind The Quality Feel The Width
Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width was a British television sitcom first broadcast in 1967 as a single play in the Armchair Theatre anthology series, later becoming a series of half-hour episodes, which ran until 1971...

(1970) Patrick's friends sing Danny Boy to him at his farewell do before his return to Ireland.
In the fourth season of "30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...

" (2009) Danny Baker (played by Cheyenne Jackson
Cheyenne Jackson
Cheyenne Jackson is an American actor and singer. He started in regional theater when he moved to Seattle, and after moving to New York City, made his 2002 Broadway theatre debut understudying both male leads in the Tony Award-winning musical Thoroughly Modern Millie...

) sings several lines of 'Danny Boy' to Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski
Jane Krakowski
Jane Krakowski is an American actress and singer. She is most well known for her performance of Elaine Vassal on Ally McBeal, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and for her current role as Jenna Maroney on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, for which she has been nominated for three Emmy...

), but is interrupted when she gets a nose bleed. It is also briefly sung in season two's episode "Sandwich Day
Sandwich Day
"Sandwich Day" is the fourteenth episode of the second season of 30 Rock and the thirty-fifth episode overall. It was written by one of the season's executive producers, Robert Carlock, and one of the season's co-executive producers, Jack Burditt. The episode was directed by one of the season's...

"
In an episode of Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...

, Johnny plays part of the song on a bagpipe to make the Loch Ness Monster
Loch Ness Monster
The Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid that is reputed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next....

cry.
In an episode of "Touched by an Angel
Touched by an Angel
Touched by an Angel is an American drama series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994 and ran for 211 episodes and nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and produced by Martha Williamson, the series stars Roma Downey, as an angel named Monica, and Della...

" the angel Monica, played by actress Roma Downey
Roma Downey
Roma Downey is an actress, singer, and producer, from Derry, Northern Ireland. She is best known as Tess's angel/employee, Monica, the main character of the TV series Touched by an Angel. She is also the wife of television producer, Mark Burnett.-Early life:Downey was born and raised in Derry...

, becomes envious of a child prodigy singer. Embittered that God had not actually given her the gift of "the voice of an angel", she drinks half a beer, becomes unruly, and tries to sing the song in Karaoke, executing it so poorly that it causes a fight and her supervising angel has to bail her out of jail.
In the Japanese TV comedy Kodai Shoujotai Dogoon V
The Ancient Dogoo Girl
is a Japanese comedy tokusatsu series directed by Noboru Iguchi, director of The Machine Girl and RoboGeisha. The show airs on MBS every Wednesday night at 25:25 JST. The ending theme is Denki Groove's .In October 2010, Dogoo Girl premiered its sequel...

, "Danny Boy" is a source of comfort for Shouta Tsukimiya; in episode 6, he plays it on the harmonica that Doji-chan finds in his keepsake box. In the series finale, Doji-chan attempts to play "Danny Boy" on Shouta's harmonica to bring him back to reality when he becomes possessed by a demon, and the episode ends with Shouta sitting in the altar room of his home playing the song as Doji-chan sits beside him, with Dogu-chan and the other Dogoon Five girls standing around the room.
In 'Modern Family
Modern Family
Modern Family is an American television comedy series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, which debuted on ABC on September 23, 2009. Lloyd and Levitan serve as showrunner and executive producers, under their Levitan-Lloyd Productions label...

', "Regrets Only" (Season 2, Episode 16), Ed O'Neill sings a few lines of 'Danny Boy' in the credit tag, until his stepson, Manny, unplugs the karaoke machine and says, "If you don't stop, this won't be the last time I pull the plug!"
In 'The Glee Project
The Glee Project
The Glee Project is an American reality television series from Oxygen. It serves as an audition for the FOX TV series Glee. Although originally planned to begin broadcasting in late May 2011, The Glee Project premiered on June 12, 2011...

', "Sexuality" (Season 1, Episode 7), Damian McGinty
Damian McGinty
Damian McGinty, Jr. is a Northern Irish singer and actor from Derry, Northern Ireland, and was a member of the group Celtic Thunder. He has been performing for the past thirteen years, winning his first music competition before the age of six...

sang the song as his performance piece for Last Chance Recital.
In Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...

, the song is sometimes sung by Packie when he is drunk.

External links

The Legend and History of the Song Danny Boy
http://allaboutirish.com/library/music/dannyboy.shtm

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