It's a Long Way to Tipperary is an English music hall song first performed in 1912 by Jack Judge and written by Judge and Harry Williams
It's a Long Way to Tipperary (or It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary) is an English music hall song first performed in 1912 by Jack Judge and written by Judge and Harry Williams, though authorship of the song has long been disputed. It was recorded in 1914 by Irish tenor John McCormack. It was used as a marching song among soldiers in the First World War and is remembered as a song of that war. Judge's parents were Irish, and his grandparents came from Tipperary. Judge met Harry Williams in Oldbury, Worcestershire at the Malt Shovel public house, where Williams's brother Ben was the licensee. Williams was severely disabled, having fallen down cellar steps as a child and badly broken both legs. He had developed a talent for writing verse and songs, and played the piano and mandolin, often in public. Judge and Williams began a long-term writing partnership that resulted in 32 music hall songs published by Bert Feldman. Many of the songs were composed by Williams and Judge at Williams's home, The Plough Inn (later to be renamed The Tipperary Inn), in Balsall Common. Because Judge could not read or write music, Williams taught them to Judge by ear.
Judge was a popular semi-professional performer in music halls. In January 1912, he was performing at the Grand Theatre in Stalybridge, and accepted a 5-shilling bet that he could compose and sing a new song by the next night. The following evening, 31 January, Judge performed It's a Long Way to Tipperary for the first time and it immediately became a great success. The song was originally written and performed as a sentimental ballad, to be enjoyed by Irish expatriates living in London. Judge sold the rights to the song to Bert Feldman in London, who agreed to publish it and other songs written by Judge with Williams. Feldman published the song as It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary in October 1912, and promoted it as a march. The song was originally written as a lament from an Irish worker in London, missing his homeland. Unlike popular songs of previous wars (such as the Boer Wars), it did not incite soldiers to glorious deeds, instead concentrating on the longing for home. The parody It's the Wrong, Wrong Way to Tickle Mary was published as sheet music by J. Will Callahan and Charles Brown in the USA in 1915. The bawdy lyrics suggest the performances of concert parties on the front lines of the war. The song was featured as one of the songs in the 1951 film On Moonlight Bay, the 1960s stage musical and film Oh! What a Lovely War, and the 1970 musical Darling Lili, sung by Julie Andrews. It was also sung by the prisoners of war in Jean Renoir's film La Grande Illusion (1937) and as background music in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966). It is also featured in For Me and My Gal (1942) starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly and Gallipoli (1981) starring Mel Gibson.
