When Alfred Bryan and Fred Fisher first wrote “Peg o’ My Heart” after the 1912 play of the same name, they probably envisioned arrangements like the one Charles Harrison recorded the following year.
If they squinted way into the future, perhaps they would have recognized Gene Vincent’s cover from the early rock and roll era.
But it’s hard to imagine they could have remotely anticipated how Dropkick Murphys and Bruce Springsteen would transform it 99 years after the song first debuted, on the band’s 2011 album Going Out in Style.
Dropkick’s celtic punk arrangement is fierce, fun, and taut.
It’s also sweet, once we hear the inspiration for the cover. Here’s Ken Casey, special guest Bruce Springsteen, and extra special guest and inspiration Grandma Peg on stage at the House of Blues in Boston in 2011, just weeks after the song and album were first released.
This is a beautifully captured clip–we can viscerally feel the energy in the room. Bruce in particular is all in for his performance.
This is a live team-up we need to see again someday soon.
Peg o’ My Heart
Recorded: 2010
Released: Going Out in Style (2011)
First performed: March 18, 2011 (Boston, MA)
Last performed: March 18, 2011 (Boston, MA)
