Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here

For other uses, see The Gang's All Here (disambiguation).

Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here is an American popular song first published in 1917. The lyrics, written by D. A. Esrom (pseudonym of Theodora Morse) to a tune composed by Arthur Sullivan for the 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance,^[1] are:

Sheet music cover, 1917

Hail, hail, the gang's all here.
What the heck do we care,
What the heck do we care?
Hail, hail, the gang's all here.
What the heck do we care now?

The melody was originally part of "With Cat-Like Tread" in Act II of Pirates and echoes the Anvil Chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore;^[2][3] W. S. Gilbert’s original lyrics set by Sullivan to the tune are:

Come, friends, who plough the sea.
Truce to navigation,
Take another station.
Let's vary piracy
With a little burglary

It appears that the lyric "Hail, hail, the gang's all here" had unofficially been added to Sullivan's melody many years before 1917. It was referenced in American newspapers as a familiar song as early as 1898, sung at political and other gatherings.^[4][5] A Philadelphia Inquirer news item from April 1, 1898, for example, stated that during a raucous meeting, members of the Philadelphia Common Council loudly sang, "Hail, hail, the gang's all here, what the h--- do we care! What the h--- do we care!"^[6][7] Likewise, a Delaware state legislature session in March 1901 was disrupted when Democratic members loudly sang the song.^[8][9] The title line of the song is also quoted in the closing measures of the 1915 song "Alabama Jubilee".^[10] Also in 1915, the Ohio State University fight song Across the Field incorporated the title phrase as the penultimate lyric.^[11]

By the 1950s, the chorus of the song (with revised lyrics) had become popular in Irish and Scottish communities as being part of "The Celtic Song", sung by the fans of Glasgow Celtic in Scotland and later other teams. Glen Daly recorded an "official version" of "The Celtic Song" that is commonly played at Celtic Park prior to matches.^[12]

External resources

• Sheet music with both verse and chorus
• Lyrics with MIDI on nih.gov

References

1. Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here. Worldcat. 1917. OCLC 60677181. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
2. William Berger (23 June 2010). Verdi With a Vengeance: An Energetic Guide to the Life and Complete Works of the King of Opera. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 286. ISBN 978-0-307-75633-6.
3. Richard Taruskin (14 August 2006). "12". Music in the Nineteenth Century: The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. pp. 596–597. ISBN 978-0-19-979602-1. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
4. "Creamery Men Here - Two Hundred and Forty-One in the Excursion". Newspapers.com. The Wichita Daily Eagle. 26 February 1898. p. 6. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
5. "Keep Griffin Under Cover". Newspapers.com. The St. Paul Globe (Minnesota). 16 April 1898. p. 2. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
6. "Riotous Commoners: Scenes of Disorder in the Lower Chamber". Newspapers.com. The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1 April 1898. p. 2. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
7. "Riotous Commoners: Scenes of Disorder in the Lower Chamber," Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 1898, p. 2
8. "Delaware Deadlock Bars Election of U.S. Senators". Newspapers.com. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 8 March 1901. p. 2. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
9. "Wild Times in Dover," Batavia (NY) Spirit of the Times, March 1901
10. "Alabama Jubilee (Lyrics)". International Lyrics Playground. lyricsplayground.com. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
11. "Ohio State fight song Lyrics". Lyrics on Demand. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
12. "Songs - History of Hail Hail and The Celtic Song". The Celtic Wiki (Celtic Football Club). Retrieved 23 October 2018.