Danny Boy - John McCormack
jonathan stafford
I am desperate for a copy of the above track to play at my Grandfathers
Funeral on Thursday. Can anyone please help?
Kind Regards
Jonathan Stafford
Mike Richter
It's surprising that I cannot find it on an EMI or other authorized
reissue, but I have it on Asco LP under its official name, "Londonderry
Air". I'll be happy to e-mail it to you if you provide a suitable e-mail
address that can handle about 2 MB (estimated size). If you need it on
CD and cannot find it under that title, e-mail me with your snailmail
address and I'll try to get it to you on disc.
Douglas Clark
Air.
--
Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
"Mike Richter" <mric...@cpl.net> wrote in message
news:4081C610...@cpl.net...
Mark D Lew
<dgdc...@NOSPAMdgdclynx.plus.com> wrote:
> Because it has the different lyrics I am not keen on McCormack's Londonderry
> Air.
A correspondent who has studied the song, tells me this:
<< Oddly, and interestingly, the great John McCormack supposedly didn't
like the Weatherly words and didn't sing it! Even though the Pat Coogan
"Danny Boy" books says he did. In 1922 he recorded Londonderry Air and
in 1936 and 1940 his own words, "O Mary Dean." (Not so hot IMO.) >>
Weatherly is Fred Weatherly, who wrote the "Danny Boy" text and
published it set to the Londonderry Air tune in 1913. The tune was
first published in 1855, without text, and subsequently several
different poems were attached to it. Most popular of these are
Katherine Tynan Hinkson's "Would God I were the tender apple blossom",
which is what people usually mean when they refer to the "Londonderry
Air" words. I assume that's what McCormack recorded in 1922.
The aforementioned correspondent compiled for me a list of tenors (and
others) who recorded the song, along with the key each sang it in. I'm
sure he won't mind if I share it:
<<
1. Dennis Day (1956), D. (He *could* do it higher.)
2. Joe Feeney (L. Welk's tenor) (1964), G. (High B!)
3. Robert White (1976), F.
4. Frank Patterson ('88), E.
5. PBS Irish Tenors ('01), F.
6. Louis Browne ('70s), F.
7. Kenneth McKellan ('60s), F. (Sings "O Mary Dean" then sings
Weatherly words in first person!)
8. Mario Lanza ('51), F.
9. John McDermott ('90s), D.
10. Andy Williams (1961), D. (Lovely version.)
11. John Gary (1963), Db to D
12. Jackie Wilson, G. (*Very* unusual, "bluesy".)
13. James Galway, F.
>>
mdl
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
Douglas Clark wrote:
>
> Because it has the different lyrics I am not keen on McCormack's Londonderry
> Air.
But one assumes the OP's grandfather WAS "keen on" it, which seems more
to the point, since it is wanted as funerary music for that gentleman!
Have you never encountered the concept of playing music dear to the
deceased as a tribute to him/her? (Regardless of the quality or
tastefulness of same?)
Mark D Lew
<evgmso...@earthlink.net> wrote:
Mr Clark was simply offering his own opinion of the lyrics. I didn't
read it as a recommendation for the OP's funeral programming.
mdl
jonathan stafford
singing Weatherly's lyrics to "Danny Boy" on KaZaa. The reason why I am
still looking for it though is because the very last note is chopped and it
ends suddenly. However it certainly appears to me that McCormack did
actually sing "O Danny Boy..." as well as "O Mary Dear..." which I also have
a CD of and rather like. My Nan "isnt very keen" so it might have to be the
Jim Reeves version on Thursday.
Jonathan
"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" <evgmso...@earthlink.net> wrote in
message news:4082CFE4...@earthlink.net...
Pat Finley
>
> Weatherly is Fred Weatherly, who wrote the "Danny Boy" text and
> published it set to the Londonderry Air tune in 1913. The tune was
> first published in 1855, without text, and subsequently several
> different poems were attached to it. >
> mdl
I've probably told this story here before, but the first real 'date'
my wife and I ever had, twenty-five years ago last month, involved a
weekend trip to Las Vegas, with a young Korean couple who were very
good friends of mine.
As we were driving back to LA on Sunday afternoon, everyone was in
good spirits, because we'd all had a little luck, but we were all
rather tired, too, because we'd all been up most of the night seeing
the sights in Las Vegas (my wife-to-be had never been there before).
Anyway, the conversation lagged and so I turned on the radio, and an
instrumental version of the Londonderry Air came on a few minutes
later. I began singing some of the words softly and suddenly I
realised that Yung, my Korean friend, was singing along, too, but much
louder than I -- and in Korean. And he was looking at me with an
expression every bit as odd as the one I was giving him.
"How do you know that song?" we asked each other almost
simultaneously. Apparently the Korean version of the song is very
well-known in Korea, but he was not aware that the melody had been
borrowed from the land of my ancestors.
Nor did I have any idea that the poignant elegy had circled the globe.
Pat
Mark D Lew
Finley <capa0...@aol.com> wrote:
> I've probably told this story here before, but [...]
If you did, I missed it. Lovely story. Thanks, Pat.
mdl
Leonard Tillman
1. Dennis Day (1956), D. (He *could* do it higher.)
2. Joe Feeney (L. Welk's tenor) (1964), G. (High B!)
3. Robert White (1976), F.
4. Frank Patterson ('88), E.
5. PBS Irish Tenors ('01), F.
6. Louis Browne ('70s), F.
7. Kenneth McKellan ('60s), F. (Sings "O Mary Dean" then sings Weatherly
words in first person!)
8. Mario Lanza ('51), F.
9. John McDermott ('90s), D.
10. Andy Williams (1961), D. (Lovely version.)
11. John Gary (1963), Db to D
12. Jackie Wilson, G. (*Very* unusual, "bluesy".)
13. James Galway, F.
>mdl
-------------------------
A couple of great basso renditions were by Paul Robeson in the 1930s -
and "Kamahl", over a half-century later.
Leonard Tillman
Premiereopera
>A couple of great basso renditions were by Paul Robeson in the 1930s -
>and "Kamahl", over a half-century later.
>
>Leonard Tillman
And two great soprano renditions. One I have heard live- Aprile Millo, often in
recital with only a harp accompanying her, and the gorgeous recording of Rosa
Ponselle.
Both do it in the same key, with the top note being a G- which is the same key
that the great baritone Leonard Warren sings it in on his 1947 78, release in
the Warren special edition on CD.
Ed
Sing
> The aforementioned correspondent compiled for me a list of tenors (and
> others) who recorded the song, along with the key each sang it in. I'm
> sure he won't mind if I share it:
>
> <<
> 1. Dennis Day (1956), D. (He *could* do it higher.)
> 2. Joe Feeney (L. Welk's tenor) (1964), G. (High B!)
> 3. Robert White (1976), F.
> 4. Frank Patterson ('88), E.
> 5. PBS Irish Tenors ('01), F.
> 6. Louis Browne ('70s), F.
> 7. Kenneth McKellan ('60s), F. (Sings "O Mary Dean" then sings
> Weatherly words in first person!)
> 8. Mario Lanza ('51), F.
> 9. John McDermott ('90s), D.
> 10. Andy Williams (1961), D. (Lovely version.)
> 11. John Gary (1963), Db to D
> 12. Jackie Wilson, G. (*Very* unusual, "bluesy".)
> 13. James Galway, F.
Domingo did it too.
Should Andy Williams be considered a baritone instead?
Strongly recommend Lanza, move you into tears.
Leonard Tillman
> baritone instead?
Not according to these ears, - unless he qualifies strictly according to
range.
Even less-believably, Eddie Fisher and John Gary were called baritones,
though their tones were distinctly *tenorial*.
Leonard Tillman
"Apologies are sometimes due -- but only when owed, -- never to those
who, *themselves*, owe them, and never for what was deliberately
provoked."