Written 30 January 1912 | ||
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"It's a Long Way to Tipperary" is a British music hall song written by Jack Judge and co-credited to Henry James "Harry" Williams. It was allegedly written for a 5-shilling bet in Stalybridge on 30 January 1912 and performed the next night at the local music hall. Now commonly called "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", the original printed music calls it "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary." It became popular among soldiers in the First World War and is remembered as a song of that war.
Contents
- Initial popularity
- Content
- Writing partnership
- Controversy over authorship
- Estate still receives royalties
- Performance
- Lyrics
- Other versions and adaptations
- References
Welcoming signs in the referenced county of Tipperary, Ireland, humorously declare, "You've come a long long way..." in reference to the song.
Initial popularity
During the First World War, Daily Mail correspondent George Curnock saw the Irish regiment the Connaught Rangers singing this song as they marched through Boulogne on 13 August 1914 and reported it on 18 August 1914. The song was quickly picked up by other units of the British Army. In November 1914, it was recorded by the well-known tenor John McCormack, which helped its worldwide popularity.
Content
One of the most popular hits of the time, the song is atypical in that it is not a warlike song that incites the soldiers to glorious deeds. Popular songs in previous wars (such as the Boer Wars) frequently did this. In the First World War, however, the most popular songs, like this one and "Keep the Home Fires Burning", concentrated on the longing for home.
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.
Writing partnership
Judge's parents were Irish, and his grandparents came from Tipperary. Jack Judge and Harry Williams met in Oldbury, Worcestershire at the Malt Shovel, where Harry's brother Ben was the licensee. Judge and Williams began a long-term writing partnership that resulted in 32 music hall songs published by Feldmans. Harry was severely handicapped, as he had fallen down cellar steps as a child. His parents were publicans and many of the songs were believed to have been composed with Judge at their home, "The Plough Inn" (now "The Tipperary Inn"), in Balsall Common.
Controversy over authorship
After Harry Williams' death in 1924 Jack Judge claimed sole credit for the song, allegedly writing it for a 5-shilling bet in Stalybridge on 30 January 1912 and performing it the next night at the local music hall. However, the tune and most of the lyrics to the song already existed in the form of a manuscript, "It's A Long Way to Connemara". This manuscript was co-written by Williams and Judge. The writing partners split the royalties for "It's a Long, Long, Way to Tipperary" until Jack Judge sold his royalties to Harry Williams in 1915.
In 1917, Miss Alice Smyth Burton Jay sued song publishers Chappell & Co. for $100,000, alleging she wrote the tune in 1908 for a song played at the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition promoting the Washington apple industry. The chorus began "I'm on my way to Yakima." The court appointed Victor Herbert to act as expert advisor and dismissed the suit in 1920, since the authors of "Tipperary" had never been to Seattle and Victor Herbert testified the two songs were not similar enough to suggest plagiarism.
Estate still receives royalties
Williams' family got together in 2012 to have Harry Williams officially re-credited with the song. They shared their archives with the Imperial War Museums. The family estate still receives royalties from the song.
Performance
First sung on the British music hall stage in 1912 by Jack Judge at the Grand Theatre in Stalybridge and later popularised by the music hall star Florrie Forde, it was featured as one of the songs in the 1951 film On Moonlight Bay, the 1960s stage musical and film 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 and as background music in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming. It is also the second part (the other two being Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire and Mademoiselle from Armentières) of the regimental march of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. Mystery Science Theater 3000 used it twice, sung by Crow T. Robot in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, then sung again for the final television episode. It is also sung by British soldiers in the film The Travelling Players directed by the Theo Angelopoulos, and by Czechoslovak soldiers in the movie Černí baroni.
The song is often cited when documentary footage of the First World War is presented. One example of its use is in the annual television special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Snoopy—who fancies himself as a First World War flying ace—dances to a medley of First World War-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. Also, Snoopy was seen singing the song out loud in a series of strips about his going to the 1968 Winter Olympics. In another strip, Snoopy is walking so long a distance to Tipperary that he lies down exhausted and notes, "They're right, it is a long way to Tipperary." On a different occasion, Snoopy walks along and begins to sing the song, only to meet a sign that reads, "Tipperary: One Block." In a Sunday strip wherein Snoopy, in his World War I fantasy state, walks into Marcie's home, thinking it a French café, and falls asleep after drinking all her root beer, she rousts him awake by loudly singing the song.
The cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show march off screen singing the song at the conclusion of the series' final episode.
It was sung by the crew of U-96 in Wolfgang Petersen's 1981 film Das Boot (that particular arrangement was performed by the Red Army Choir). Morale is boosted in the submarine when the German crew sings the song as they start patrolling in the North Atlantic Ocean. The crew sings it a second time as they cruise toward home port after near disaster.
Lyrics
Up to mighty LondonCame an Irishman one day.As the streets are paved with goldSure, everyone was gay,Singing songs of Piccadilly,Strand and Leicester Square,Till Paddy got excited,Then he shouted to them there:ChorusIt's a long way to Tipperary,It's a long way to go.It's a long way to TipperaryTo the sweetest girl I know!Goodbye, Piccadilly,Farewell, Leicester Square!It's a long long way to Tipperary,But my heart's right there.Paddy wrote a letterTo 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!ChorusMolly wrote a neat replyTo Irish Paddy-O,Saying "Mike MaloneyWants to marry me, and soLeave the Strand and PiccadillyOr you'll be to blame,For love has fairly drove me silly:Hoping you're the same!"ChorusAn alternative concluding chorus, bawdy by contemporaneous standards:
That's the wrong way to tickle Mary,That's the wrong way to kiss.Don't you know that over here, ladThey like it best like this.Hooray pour Les FrançaisFarewell Angleterre.We didn't know how to tickle Mary,But we learnt how over there.