Customer Reviews

The Best Of The Irish Rovers [Remaster]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I use to have the Greatest Hits cassette of these guys now I've just bought this CD. And it just keeps going on with their legendary folky irish music ballads like someone celebrating a traditional Saint Patrick's Day festival. Irish Rovers were based and originally formed in Canada. The remastered compilation album has their history and chronicling every detail career they been doing since the late mid sixties.it also features what songs are from previous rovers releated album singles of those decade periods 1967-1971 under the record label company Decca. Jimmy Ferguson one of the band musicians died of natural causes in his sleep on October 8, 1997 which I did not know that. So i guess it's decaded in his memory of these recordings back then. Also other original band members were George, Joe, Will Millar three brothers & Wilfil McDowell. My favorite song classics on here are "The Unicorn", "Years May Come, Years May Go", "Lily The Pink", "Whiskey on a Sunday (The Puppet Song)" and "Goodbye Mrs. Durkin". if you want something that will set the mood for some old fashion folk irish tunes. Let the Rovers have your feet, toes tapping or your whole body dancing through all day long trust me it's a pure entertainent masterpiece that is so rich to be good as it gets here!

Yes, this is a remaster, but it contains all my favorite songs from the years when I first listened to the Irish Rovers. I loved the songs then, and I still love them. In fact I bought a copy to give to my mother, and she still loves them. Good songs are good songs, even if it is a remaster of earlier works.

I often think that fun music must be the hardest to do properly because it would be so easy to sound silly. Yet here is a group that sounds like they're having fun but still taking their music seriously.

The set opens with The unicorn, a children's song that has become their signature song. Liverpool Lou is a great folk song that has been recorded by many singers. The orange and the green takes an amusing look at an Irish family (their own?) in which the father is Protestant and the mother is Catholic. Lily the Pink, a brilliant drinking song, is a cover of the Scaffold's number one UK hit. Did she mention my name is a cover of a Gordon Lightfoot song. Years may come years may go provided Herman's Hermits with a major UK hit in 1970. The marvellous toy is a cover of Tom Paxton's classic children's song. A storefront from the TV series, The Virginian, was the inspiration for Mrs Crandall's boarding house.

So many great songs (and not just those I've mentioned) will surely provide plenty of happy listening. If the Irish rovers can't cheer you up, nobody can.

for her medicinal compounds! This cd combines some hilarious drinking songs with children's songs. The former are well worth the patience involved in getting through the latter.

THE ORANGE AND THE GREEN provides an amusing look at the difficulties involved in being the mixed offspring of Catholic Irish and Protestant Scottish-Irish parents ("being strictly neutral, I bashed everyone in sight!")while LILY THE PINK is an amusing story about the efficacy of a woman's medicinal compounds which were some less than expected: "Ebenezer thought he was Julius Caesar so they put him in a home and gave him medicinal compound, now he's Emperor of Rome!" They also cured an indivdual with a "terrible stammer" after which "he's s-s-seen but n-n-never heard."

And of course there is the slightly more subtle humor regarding Ms. Crandall's boarding house. One should just listen and enjoy.

Grab it with a copy of your favorite Gaelic Storm cd and laugh all your problems away.

The Unicorn song was their only song I had ever heard and that was when I was very young. I don't suppose The Irish Rovers are exactly my "time period", (I'm 29) but I absolutely loved this CD. I bought it for The Unicorn but found so many other wonderful songs. Even after listening to it just once, I knew it would become one of my favorites. I really liked Black Velvet Band, Years May Come and Years May Go, and The Orange and the Green. My girls just love it, too. We cleaned the house in an hour because it just made us feel so upbeat. I don't know if everyone will enjoy it, but I certainly recommend giving it a try.

Sound quality was exceptional. The richness of the recording sounds like it was made yesterday. This CD will keep your toes tapping from the start to end.

Music is stirring and makes you happy. If you play this music you can throw your prozac away. But it today

It's so nice to have the old songs on CD. I have all the Irish Rovers LPs but CDs are so much more convenient! This album has all the songs that will keep you humming all day long. And as someone said in a previous review, if you're feeling down, listen to an early Irish Rovers song and that will cheer you right up! It's definitely worth buying.

The Irish Rovers still perform and so does Will Millar. I had the opportunity to see Will in concert in Nov. 2004 and it was a wonderful show. The Irish Rovers are still fun to see too. But if you can't get to a live show go for this album!

Okay, I know this review will get me in trouble, because I respect who The Irish Rovers are and what they mean. I think if you remember their hits from the 1960s, you will undoubtedly like this album. But for me (and my slightly younger ears), these arrangements are very much influenced by their 1960s folk music production values -- and do sound a lot like Peter, Paul and Mary. If you like that sort of thing, you will like this album. These versions sound more like 1960s folk music than traditional Irish pub music or traditional Irish music. Truthfully, I listen to this album and I think they will segue into The Byrds' "Turn, turn, turn". If this is what you remember from the 60s, I'm sure you will like this album. Or if you want that folk feel, you will like this, but to me, much of it sounds like children's music (like "The Unicorn" is or has become a children's song). If you want something that either sounds like traditional Irish music -- or contemporary grittier Irish pub music -- you can do better.

I LOVE celtic music, and hearing this CD takes me to another place entirely. I've never been to Ireland, but I can just feel and hear the atmosphere of the old pubs in the drinking songs, and smell the damp fields in others. My favorite, of course, is "The Unicorn", a true classic. The remaster is totally amazing!