Most-Recorded Songs
The Top Ten Songs 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 songs out of the 590 distinct songs 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)
111 – Tune
Info		May Morning Dew, The / May Morning Dew (also as air)
24 – Tune
Info		Bonny Light Horseman, The
34 – Tune
Info		Maid of Coolmore, The / Maid of Coolmore / The Maids of Culmore (mislabeled as Tiochfaidh An Samhradh on some BB 2 reissues) (also as air)
44 – Tune
Info		Shamrock Shore, The / Shamrock Shore (also as air)
53 – Tune
Info		 An Cailín Deas Crúite na mBó / Cailín Deas Crúite na mBó / Pretty Girl Milking her Cow (also as air, included here) (compare melody with melody of Banks of Sullane #119 and of Bean an Leanna #4513)
63 – Tune
Info		 A Dhruimfhionn Donn Dílis / An Druimfhionn Donn Dílis / An Druimfhionn Donn Dilis / An Droimeann Donn Dílis / Drimin Donn Dilis / The Dear Brown Cow / The Beloved Silk of the Kine (also as air) (composed by Edward Walsh (text), trad. (tune))
73 – Tune
Info		 An Mhaighdean Mhara / The Mermaid / The Mermaid Song / The Sea Maiden (also as air)
83 – Tune
Info		 Bean Pháidín / Bean Phaidín / [misspelled as:] Bean Phaidón / The Wife of Páidín
93 – Tune
Info		Cucanandy / Cuca-Nandy-Nandy / Dance to Your Daddy O (also as slip jig) (compare slip jig Another Jig Will Do #78 and compare slide She Didn't Dance and Dance #2484)
103 – Tune
Info		 An Buinneán Buí / An Buinneán Buidhe / The Yellow Bittern (also as air, included here; setting on SltSdt has totally different melody) (composed by Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna aka Cathal Buidhe Mac Giolla Gunna)
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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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