I was testing an old cassette player just the other day to see if it still worked, and the cassette I happened to pull out of the drawer was Dennis Day's ["greatest hits" -- whatever the title really was]. I keep it around because it's the only recording I have of his version of Sinner Man which he did better than anyone else. It also has Molly Malone on it. I doubt if the recording ever came out on CD, though.I watched a film yesterday that was set in various parts of Southern Ireland. And during it, a traditional song from Northern Ireland was played. Except, the lyrics were changed to refer to Dublin instead of Belfast, so as to fit in with the setting of the film. And I was raging. Apart from anything else, it meant the chorus no longer made sense, because in it's original form the line in question is a play on words.
So, here is the most famous recording with the correct words:
Van Morrison and The Chieftans - "I'll Tell Me Ma"
Why could the producers of this film not have just used the traditional song that everybody else goes for when they want a song about Dublin?!
I think Paddy Reilly is doing the lead vocals on this recording (it's certainly not Ronnie Drew!):
The Dubliners - "Molly Malone"
(By the way, I was surprised that I could only find two recordings of this song by artists from NI. Unfortunately, I didn't like either version. Ruby Murray slowed the song down too much for her version, and Johnny Logan's version was plain awful!)
CaroLiza_fan