Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here

{{short description|1917 American song}}

{{other uses|The Gang's All Here (disambiguation)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

File:Hail hail the gang.jpg

Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here is an American popular song first published in 1917. The lyrics, written by D. A. Esrom (pseudonym of Theodora Morse) to a tune composed by Arthur Sullivan for the 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance,{{cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/60677181|title=Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here|publisher=Worldcat|date=1917|oclc=60677181|accessdate=4 October 2014}} are:

{{quote|Hail, hail, the gang's all here.

What the heck do we care,

What the heck do we care?

Hail, hail, the gang's all here.

What the heck do we care now?}}

The melody was originally part of "With Cat-Like Tread" in Act II of Pirates and echoes the Anvil Chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore;{{cite book| author=William Berger|title=Verdi With a Vengeance: An Energetic Guide to the Life and Complete Works of the King of Opera|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eTK4_Z4cOEIC&pg=PT286|date=23 June 2010| publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-75633-6|page=286}}{{cite book|author=Richard Taruskin|title=Music in the Nineteenth Century: The Oxford History of Western Music| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D-0VX3ASxm4C&pg=PT596|accessdate=23 October 2018|date=14 August 2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-979602-1|pages=596–597|chapter=12}} W. S. Gilbert’s original lyrics set by Sullivan to the tune are:

{{quote|Come, friends, who plough the sea.

Truce to navigation,

Take another station.

Let's vary piracy

With a little burglary}}

It appears that the lyric "Hail, hail, the gang's all here" had unofficially been added to Sullivan's melody many years before 1917. It was referenced in American newspapers as a familiar song as early as 1898, sung at political and other gatherings.{{cite web |title=Creamery Men Here - Two Hundred and Forty-One in the Excursion |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24780179/ |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Wichita Daily Eagle |accessdate=23 October 2018 |page=6 |date=26 February 1898}}{{cite web |title=Keep Griffin Under Cover |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24779995/ |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The St. Paul Globe (Minnesota) |accessdate=23 October 2018 |page=2 |date=16 April 1898}} A Philadelphia Inquirer news item from April 1, 1898, for example, stated that during a raucous meeting, members of the Philadelphia Common Council loudly sang, "Hail, hail, the gang's all here, what the hell do we care! What the hell do we care!"{{cite web |title=Riotous Commoners: Scenes of Disorder in the Lower Chamber |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/18173097/the_philadelphia_inquirer/ |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer |accessdate=23 October 2018 |page=2 |date=1 April 1898}}"Riotous Commoners: Scenes of Disorder in the Lower Chamber," Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 1898, p. 2 Likewise, a Delaware state legislature session in March 1901 was disrupted when Democratic members loudly sang the song.{{cite web |title=Delaware Deadlock Bars Election of U.S. Senators |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24778392/ |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |accessdate=23 October 2018 |page=2 |date=8 March 1901}}"Wild Times in Dover," Batavia (NY) Spirit of the Times, March 1901 The title line of the song is also quoted in the closing measures of the 1915 song "Alabama Jubilee".{{cite web |title=Alabama Jubilee (Lyrics) |url=https://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/a/alabamajubilee.html |website=International Lyrics Playground |publisher=lyricsplayground.com |accessdate=23 October 2018}} Also in 1915, the Ohio State University fight song Across the Field incorporated the title phrase as the penultimate lyric.{{cite web|title=Ohio State fight song Lyrics |url=https://www.lyricsondemand.com/miscellaneouslyrics/fightsongslyrics/ohiostatefightsonglyrics.html |publisher=Lyrics on Demand |accessdate=July 11, 2021}}

By the 1950s, the chorus of the song (with revised lyrics) had become popular in Irish and Scottish communities as being part of "The Celtic Song", sung by the fans of Glasgow Celtic in Scotland and later other teams. Glen Daly recorded an "official version" of "The Celtic Song" that is commonly played at Celtic Park prior to matches.{{cite web |title=Songs - History of Hail Hail and The Celtic Song |url=http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Hail+Hail+%28Grand+Old+Team%29+-+Song |website=The Celtic Wiki (Celtic Football Club) |accessdate=23 October 2018}}