Actors - McNamara's Band

Home > Listing Index > Actors > McNamara's Band

	Actors - McNamara's Band

McNamara's Band is the title of a popular song recorded in late 1945 by legendary crooner Bing Crosby. It's the tongue-in-cheek story of a small Irish band penned by the song writing team of O'Connor and Stanford.

Released on Decca Records in early 1946 the song became a top-ten hit for Crosby. It's still one of Crosby's most popular songs and is sung loudly and often at St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the United States and Ireland.

The tale is based on an actual band, the St. Mary's Fife and Drum Band , formed in Limerick, Ireland in 1885. In the late 1800's the band featured four brothers, Patrick, John, Michael and Thomas McNamara, and became famous for playing shows all across Ireland.

In the early 1900's Patrick and Thomas emigrated to the United States and formed the "McNamara's Band" with Patrick "Patsy" Salmon, another Limerick emigre.

After Salmon left the group Patrick and Thomas formed "McNamara's Trio" with Thomas on piccolo, Patrick on violin and Patrick’s daughter, Eileen, on the piano. The trio recorded and released several songs for Voralion Records.

Trivia

Thomas McNamara, born in 1865, was the last of the McNamara brothers to pass away. He died in May 1978.
Crosby's backing band on his hit single was The Jesters.
McNamara's Band is a nickname for fans of Syracuse University basketball star Gerry McNamara.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for McNamara's Band ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article McNamara's Band; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay