When I was in high school and college, I spent many summers marching in drum and bugle corps. One year, I spent the summer living in Boston and marched with the corps The 27th Lancers. This corps’ standard parade song was O Danny Boy. Whenever we marched in parades, the locals knew that we would play Danny Boy for them. So, up and down the streets of Boston, half-drunk (and often fully-drunk) men would scream like teenage girls at a boy-band concert for us to play Danny Boy. Once the music would commence, they’d often break down in tears and begin sobbing and hugging each other. It was a sight that I’ll never forget–and the sound of their demands for this old tune will forever leave me with a weird smile on my face.

The muppets, of course, have the definitive performance of the tune. (sorry–the embed to this video seems to be broken at youtube today… will try to fix as soon as i can.)