It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary

DESCRIPTION: Of an Irishman who comes to London then is called back home by his sweetheart. Know mostly for the chorus: "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...."
AUTHOR: Jack Judge (and Harry Williams?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love separation return
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(SE) Canada
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 22-23, "Tipperary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 27-28, "It's a Long Wat to Tipperary" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #21, "Tipperary" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 177, "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 308-309, "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 188, 249, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" (notes only)
DT, TIPRARY*
Roud #11235
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Long Way to Tipperary" (OKeh 45077, 1927; rec. 1926)
Frank Hutchison, "Long Way To Tipperary" (Okeh 45089, 1927)
John & Emery McClung "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" (Brunswick 136, 1927)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" (Columbia 15249-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
SAME TUNE:
It's a Good Time to Get Acquainted (File: ACSF149I)
It's a Long Way to Ballywalter (File: KSUC054)
The Harvest War Song (File: LDC498)
It's a Long, Long Way to Capture Villa (File: LDC293)
It's a Long Way Down to the Soup Line (File: LDC521)
Wrong Way to Tickle Marie (File: NeTT003)
It Took a Long Time to Get It Hairy (File: NeTT004)
It's a Long Way from Amphioxus (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 68-69; DT, AMPHIOXU*)
It's a Long Way down to the Breadline [Rewrite of the Joe Hill song "It's a Long Way Down to the Soup Line" by Charles Ashleigh] (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors, _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, pp. 35-36)
The Pawnshop (adapted by Dominic Behan?) (Behan-IrelandSings #70/p. 104)
Prohibition Tipperary ("It's a short way to prohibition, It's a short way to go") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 33)
Long Trail ("It's a long trail we're going over, It's a long trail to go") (Harbin-Parodology, #239, p. 60)
Waiting for Breakfast ("It's a long time to wait for breakfast") (Harbin-Parodology, #276, p. 67)
It's a Good Thing to Be a Christian (Harbin-Parodology, #418, p. 102)
NOTES [280 words]: The folklore about this song is, if anything, better than the song itself (which, apart from the tune of the chorus, is banal). Jack Judge came into a town on New Year's night and claimed he could write a song then and there. Challenged, he wrote "Tipperary."
Harry Williams was (like Judge) a vaudeville performer, although Reginald Nettel, Seven Centuries of Popular Song, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 222, says that he was crippled and the son of a Warwickshire innkeeper. The legend says that Judge owed Williams money, and offered this song in payment of the debt.
It is, of course, no longer possible to verify this. What is certain is that the song became immensely popular in the First World War, though more for the chorus (many, many Tommies came from London, after all) than the plot. Nettel, pp. 221-222, in fact says that the song's initial popularity had faded by the time the war came, and it was more popular at home than among the troops. The troops often shouted down someone who started to sing "Tipperary," according to Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 308, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1915, peaking at #1 in January 1915 (#1 for the year being J. Keirn Brennan and Ernest Ball's "A Little Bit of Heaven").
I am sorely tempted to list "It's a Long Way from Amphioxus" as a separate traditional song. It doesn't seem to have been collected in the "field," but why would it? Lancelets (amphioxus) live in the sea. The song is pretty definitely traditional in science labs.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: DTtiprar

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