Summary: No. This is not your typical "Danny Boy". The original "Danny Boy" was written by Frederick Weatherly, an English lawyer, using a traditional Irish melody called "Londonderry Air" in 1910. The song was popularized by opera singers at the turn of the century, and my guess is that it entered into the Music Hall scene where a lot of Irish were performing. They picked it up, and it became an Irish American anthem, and the dread of many contemporary Irish traditional musicians who are asked to play it every St. Patrick's Day. I didn't learn the original song until the summer of 2000. So I missed the dread part, and the Brobdingnagian Bards recorded it for our CD, Songs of Ireland. When I started writing songs for Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers, I decided I had to parody this classic song, and wrote it about my cat, Jasper, who kept me up at night, followed by a wise lesson on how to keep cats from keeping you up all night... Play with them before you sleep. Wear them out. They'll sleep. Released under a Creative Commons Noncommercial ShareAlike License. If you enjoy this recording, support independent music and pick up this CD, 'Whiskers in the Jar: Irish Songs for Cat Lovers' at www.catdrinkingsongs.com or by calling 1-800-BUY-MY-CD.
