It's a Long Way to Tipperary
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"It's a Long Way to Tipperary" is a music hall and marching song written by Jack Judge and Harry Williams (Henry James Williams), a song that, allegedly, was written for a 5 shilling bet in Stalybridge, on the 30 January 1912 and performed the next night at the local music hall. The well known chorus is:
- It's a long way to Tipperary,
- It's a long way to go.
- It's a long way to Tipperary
- To the sweetest girl I know!
- Goodbye Piccadilly,
- Farewell Leicester Square!
- It's a long, long way to Tipperary,
- But my heart's right there.
alternatively
- But my heart lies there.[1]
It was popularised by the Connaught Rangers as they marched through Boulogne on 13 August 1914, witnessed by Daily Mail correspondent George Curnock, and reported on 18 August 1914. It was then picked up by other soldiers in the British Army.
The song is considered somewhat offensive in Ireland[citation needed] since it was the marching song of the Black and Tans[citation needed].
First sung on the British music hall stage in 1913 by Florrie Forde, it was featured as one of the songs in the 1968 musical Oh! What a Lovely War and the 1970 musical "Darling Lili", sung by Julie Andrews. It was also sung by the prisoners of war in Jean Renoir's film La Grande Illusion, by the crew of U-96 in Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot (that particular arrangement was performed by the Red Army Choir), as background music in The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, and by the newsroom staff in the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It is also the second part (the other two being Has Anyone Seen the Colonel? and Mademoiselle from Armentières) of the regimental march of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. It is also sung by British soldiers in the film The Travelling Players directed by the Theo Angulopous. Also sung by a Czech soldier in the movie Cerni Baroni.
This song is not to be confused with a popular song from 1907 simply titled Tipperary. Both were sung at different times by early recording star Billy Murray. Murray, with the American Quartet, sang It's A Long Way To Tipperary as a straightforward march, complete with brass, drums and cymbals, with a quick bar of Rule Britannia thrown into the instrumental interlude between the first and second verse-chorus combination[1].
The song is often cited when documentary footage of World War I is presented. One example of its use is in the annual TV special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Snoopy (who fancies himself a WWI flying ace) dances to a medley of WWI-era songs played by Schroeder. This song is included, and at that point Snoopy falls into a left-right-left marching pace. Schroeder also played this song in Snoopy Come Home at Snoopy's send-off party.
The German U-boat crew sings the song as they start patrolling in the North Atlantic ocean to disturb convoy traffic to England, (morale is then boosted in the boat) in the World War II film Das Boot. The crew also sing it as they cruise toward home port after near disaster.
The Kannadiga playwright and poet, T.P. Kailasam, as part of a wager from an English friend, translated the song into Kannada, adding witty Kannada-specific lyrics. The resulting song, "Namma Tipparahalli balu Doora" (Halli meaning "village" in Kannada), is a popular song in Karnataka.
The final episode of the long-running sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, ended with the cast singing the tune in unison.
In the film Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Crow T. Robot sings a short parody of the song as he attempts to break through the hull of his satellite and "tunnel [his] way back to earth." His version goes "It's a long way to Tipperary/To the sweetest girl I know!/Goodbye to Noah Beery/Hello Harold Lloyd!" During the final episode of the TV series, the show's antagonists Pearl, Observer and Bobo sing the song in their last scene.
One of the University of Missouri's fight songs, "Every True Son", is sung to the tune of "It's a Long Way to Tipperary". The University of Oregon also uses a portion of the melody in "Mighty Oregon".[2]
The title has been used in various humorous stories, where a disambiguation is the basis of the joke's premise. The stories usually involve the purchase of a rare animal (a bird or a type of rabbit), called a "Rary", which the story's owner in the end is forced to get rid of because of some grave annoyance. This animal, unable to move all by itself can only roll around, and when its owner is forced to put away the animal, he travels a long way in order to tip it off a cliff, thereby triggering a comment from a passer-by who says: "That's a long way to tip a Rary!". [3]
Both episodes of the French Lock On: Modern Air Combat machinima series The Adventures of Bill & John have excerpts of the song played, most notably during the introductory scenes.
The Irish-American band Flogging Molly performs portions of this song on their 4th CD, Whiskey on a Sunday.
The song is also sung on then end of a SeaLab 2021 episode titled "Frozen Dinner" from the third season.
The song is referenced in an episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh called "Gone with the Wind", when Gopher tells Pooh that "it's a long way to Tipperary," and Pooh responds "But, Piglet doesn't live in Tipperary."
The well known punk band The Clash uses some lines of the song in their "Something about England" from the album Sandinista!Also, Texas folk/blues singer Mance Lipscomb reworked the song including references to his own hometown of Navasota, TX and California
[edit] Verses as sung in early versions
- Up to mighty London
- Came an Irishman one day
- As the streets are paved with gold
- Sure, everyone was gay
- Singing songs of Piccadilly,
- Strand and Leicester Square
- Till Paddy got excited
- And he shouted to them there...
- It's a long way to Tipperary...
- Paddy wrote a letter
- To his Irish Molly-O,
- Saying, "Should you not receive it
- Write and let me know!"
- "If I make mistakes in spelling,
- Molly dear," said he,
- "Remember, it's the pen that's bad,
- Don't lay the blame on me!
- It's a long way to Tipperary...
- Molly wrote a neat reply
- To Irish Paddy-O
- Saying Mike Maloney
- Wants to marry me and so
- Leave the Strand and Picadilly
- Or you'll be to blame
- For love has fairly drove me silly:
- Hoping you're the same!
- It's a long way to Tipperary...
An alternative concluding chorus, bawdy by contemporary standards:
- That's the wrong way to tickle Mary
- That's the wrong way to kiss
- Don't you know that over here lad
- They like it best like this
- Hooray pour les francais
- Farewell Angleterre
- We didn't know how to tickle Mary
- But we learnt how over there.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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