Harrigan (song)

Harrigan (song)

"Harrigan" is a song written by George M. Cohan for the 1907 Broadway musical, Fifty Miles From Boston. It celebrates, and to some extent mocks, his own Irish heritage.

The song was performed by James Cagney and Joan Leslie in the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy, a biopic of Cohan's life. In that film it was portrayed as an early work of Cohan's that he was shopping around. In real life, by 1907 he had already scored some major Broadway hits and had little need to try to sell individual songs to producers.

Contemporary Irish-American singer Billy Murray made a popular recording of the song. In his version, the answer "Harrigan!" to each question is shouted by a background group.

Read more about Harrigan (song):  Lyrics