Best of
These days it's difficult to understand how big theClancy Brothersand Tommy Makem were in the early 1960s. But the fact that a youngBob Dylanonce  claimed he was going to be more famous than they were--and then borrowed  the melody from their song "The Patriot Game" for his own "With God on  our Side"--hints at the level of influence they had. The tracks onThe Best of the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makemwere made between 1962 and 1969, and include a  well-chosen selection of drinking songs, rebel ballads, and comic turns,  most of which were recorded live in various concerts. The quartet belts  out these songs with a good-natured gusto that owes more to the Weavers  than it does to traditional Irish performance technique, but their  renditions of classics like "The Rising of the Moon" and "A Nation Once  Again" are still stirring. The group underwent many personnel changes in  the years after these recordings were made, but the combination of Tommy  Makem and Tom, Liam, and Paddy Clancy was never bettered.--Michael Simmons