Most-Recorded Airs
The Top Ten Airs of the Century

Of related interest:
  • Top 100 Tunes of the Century.
  • Top Ten
  • Rhythm Distribution: How common is this rhythm (tune type) in the bigger picture of all distinct Irish tunes?
  • Recordings by Decade: A graph of the historical distribution of the recordings considered here.

This list ranks the top ten most-recorded airs out of the 198 distinct airs on the indexed recordings. The tunes are ranked in descending order of number of recordings. When tunes have the same number of recordings, tunes having the oldest recordings appear first. Note that reuses of a particular cut in later anthologies are counted, which is fair, since the popularity of a recording is a good indicator both of the popularity of the tune and of the likelihood that musicians will learn the tune from that recording.

Click Tune Info below to see tune details and sources.

RankNumber of
Recordings		Explanation
Titles used for this tune (and other notes)
112 – Tune
Info		Blackbird, The / An Lon Dubh (1st in set The Blackbird on JnKlly) (compare air #163 and as set dance #164)
211 – Tune
Info		Coolin, The / An Chúileann / An Chúilfhionn / An Chuilfhionn / The Coulin / Though the Last Glimpse of Erin / In this Calm Sheltered Villa / Oh! Hush the Soft Sigh / The Lady of the Desert (also in D; also as march on JD 5)
311 – Tune
Info		Dear Irish Boy, The / An Buachaillín Bán / An Buachaillin Ban / The Little Fair-Haired Boy / The Fair-Haired Boy (1st in set Alone in the Dark on WFO 3) (also in D, E, or G) (compare as song #2624) (composed by Mícheál Ó Liongáin)
410 – Tune
Info		 Raibh tú ag an gCarraig? / A' Raibh Tú ag an gCarraig? / An Raibh tú ag an gCarraig / An Raibh tú ag an gCarraig? / An Raibh tú ar an gCarraig? / An Rabhais ag an g Carraig / Have You Been at Carrick? / Were you at Carrick? / Have You Been at the Rock? / Were You at the Rock? / Were You at the Rock (also as song, included here)
59 – Tune
Info		 An Páistín Fionn / An Paistin Fionn / An Paistín Fíonn / An Paisdín Fionn / Paisdín Fionn / An Paístin Fionn / The Little Fair Child / The Fair-haired Child / The Fair Haired Child / The Fair Haired Boy (also as song, included here, and as hornpipe #1541)
68 – Tune
Info		 An Buachaill Caol Dubh / The Dark Slender Boy (composed by Seán Aerach Ó Seanacháin?)
78 – Tune
Info		Trip We Took over the Mountain, The / The Trip over the Mountain / The Trip o'er the Mountain / Will You Come with Me over the Mountain / Over the Mountain / The Dark Woman of the Glen (also as waltz)
87 – Tune
Info		Lament for Staker Wallace, The / Lament for the Death of Staker Wallace / The Death of Staker Wallace / Bean Dubh an Gleanna
97 – Tune
Info		 Sliabh Geal gCua na Féile / Sliabh Geal gCua na Feile / Sliabh geal gua na Feile / Sliabh Geal gCua / The White Mountain / An Céileabhradh Caoine (also as song, included here) (composed by Pádraig O Maillé)
106 – Tune
Info		 Sliabh na mBan / Mountain of the Women / The Mountain of the Women (also as song, included here)
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This page was updated on 29 June 2008.
© 2006–2008 Alan Ng, agng@facstaff.wisc.edu. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
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