Danny Boy

"Danny Boy" is a traditional song, with lyrics written by English lawyer Frederic Weatherly in 1910, and set to the traditional Irish melody of "Londonderry Air" in 1913.

In 1910, in Bath, Somerset, the English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly initially wrote the words to "Danny Boy" to a tune other than "Londonderry Air". An alternative story is that Margaret Weatherly sent him a copy of "Londonderry Air" in 1913, Weatherly modified the lyrics of "Danny Boy" to fit its rhyme and meter. Another alternative version of the story has Jess singing the air to Weatherly in 1912 with different lyrics. Another alternative story is that Frederic did not set the poem to any tune, but that his sister-in-law Margaret Enright Weatherly, who together with her husband Edward were living near Ouray, Colorado, at the Neosho mine, set the poem in 1913 to the tune of the "Londonderry Air" which she had heard as a child in California played by her father and other Irish railroad workers.

Weatherly gave the song to the vocalist Elsie Griffin, who made it one of the most popular songs of the new century. Ernestine Schumann-Heink produced the first recording of "Danny Boy" in 1915.

Jane Ross of Limavady is credited with collecting the melody of "Londonderry Air" in the mid-19th century from a musician she encountered. 

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

The 1913 lyrics by Frederic E. Weatherly:

Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling,
It's you, it's you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow,
It's I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow,—
Oh, Danny boy, Oh Danny boy, I love you so!

But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying,
If I am dead, as dead I well may be,
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say an Avé there for me.
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be,
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me!