Festival Legends: Songs & Stories

Most Irish music fans know that when The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, Irish music came into its own.  The Ed Sullivan Show was one of the highest rated shows on television, drawing over eighty million viewers for each Sunday night show. But it was not their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show that shook the foundations of Irish music in America, as most believe.   The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show four times. Saving the best for last, the final appearance is the episode that changed history and altered the path, and the adoption, of Irish music, the world over.

The first appearance was on March 12, 1961, when they sang Brennan on the Moor.   Other entertainers included actress Tammy Grimes, Actor Pat O’Brien and Irish singers Brendan O’Dowda and Mary O’Hara.  Backstage, Liam Clancy was a bit nervous and had gotten a nose bleed.  He was leaning forward, bent over the guitar strapped to his chest, to insure the blood didn’t get on his white Aran sweater.  A producer came up to make sure they were ready - When he told them how many people would be watching, Liam’s nose bleed immediately dried up.
            Their second appearance was on December 16^th, 1962 and included Liberace, Abbe Lane, Xavier Cugat and Barbra Streisand, who would go on to open for The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, on their own tour, in the years following.  They performed Whistling Gypsy and South Australia. 
            March 14^th, 1965, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem made their third appearance, where they sang Wild Colonial Boy. Other guests on that show included Petula Clark, Nancy Walker and Burt Lahr.
            But it was the fourth appearance, on March 13^th, 1966, that altered the future, the prestige, and the acceptance, of Irish music in America, and eventually back in Ireland too.  It also did well for The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem!  Other guests included Wayne & Shuster, the McNiff Dancers and Mary O’Hara. Pearl Bailey was scheduled to be the headliner, but did not show.
            Liam Clancy recalls the producer coming to them, the next act, in a panic.
            “‘We’ve got a problem.  Could you guys improvise three extra songs?’
            “[Liam thought to himself…] That would leave us with about fifteen minutes out of a one hour show. …
            “‘Be good gentlemen.  Remember – there’s eighty million people watching you!’”²

The group had rehearsed two songs, which now turned into five. For sixteen minutes, an Ed Sullivan Show record, they held the stage – and most of the television tuned world, in the palm of their hands.  It was more time than anyone had ever done on the Ed Sullivan show, including the Beatles, and Elvis.

“The times we did the Ed Sullivan show, we had no idea of the enormous impact it would have.  No idea at all,” Tommy recalls.  The young performers didn’t waste the opportunity.  Their performance sent the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem on an unprecedented path to stardom.