Danny Boy
by The Irish Tenors
The old Irish ballad of a parent sending a son off and expecting to be in the grave by the time he comes home. The Irish Tenors give it the full soaring treatment, and by "I love you so" there's no holding it together.
The definitive funeral song for generations of Irish families, and the Irish Tenors sing it like they know it.
Key Lyrics
“And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me”
From the final verse. The singer is already imagining being in the grave.
"Danny Boy" has been sung at more wakes, funerals and last calls than almost any song in the English language. Frederic Weatherly set his lyrics to the old Irish melody "Londonderry Air" in 1913, and it's been breaking hearts ever since.
The song is sung by someone saying goodbye to a young man who's leaving. The pipes are calling, the summer is gone, and the singer already knows they won't be alive when he comes back. All they ask is that he find their grave and kneel there and say a prayer.
It's a parent's song, really, about loving someone enough to let them go and accepting that you won't see how their story ends. The Irish Tenors give it the full classical treatment, and the big final swell is impossible to sit through dry if you've ever buried someone you love.
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