Peg o' My Heart

"Peg o' My Heart" is a popular song written by Alfred Bryan(words) and Fred Fisher(music). It was published on March 15, 1913 and it featured in the 1913 musical Ziegfeld Follies.

The song was first performed publicly by Irving Kaufman in 1912 at The College Inn in New York City after he had stumbled across a draft of sheet music on a shelf at the Leo Feist offices.

The song was inspired by the main character in the very successful musical comedy of the time Peg O’ My Heart starring Laurette Taylor in the title role. Taylor appeared on the cover of early published sheet music.

The song, performed by Max Harris and his Novelty Trio (based on a version by The Harmonicats), was used as the theme of the BBC miniseries The Singing Detective (1986). When recording engineer Bill Putnam recorded The Harmonicats version of the song, he became the first person to use artificial reverberation creatively on a pop recording, with the use of the first reverb chamber, which had been set up in the studio's bathroom.

Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys covered the song on their 2011 album, Going Out In Style. Their version features a guest appearance by Bruce Springsteen.

Notable recordings of the song include:

In the 2010 ITV drama Downton Abbey, episode 4 season 1 features William, the second footman, playing "Peg o' My Heart" on the piano in the servants' hall.

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