Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral
song
"Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That's an Irish Lullaby)" is a classic American song that was written in 1913 by composer James Royce Shannon (1881–1946) for the Tin Pan Alley musical Shameen Dhu. The original recording of the song, by Chauncey Olcott, peaked at #1 on the music charts. The song was brought back to prominence by Bing Crosby's performance in 1944's Going My Way. Crosby's single sold over a million copies and peaked at #4 on the Billboard music charts.
History
The song's eponymous hook ("toora-loora-loo") is attested to at least as far back as 1837 in humorist doggerel in The New Monthly Magazine and elsewhere during the 19th century. It likely has roots in the same nonsense word "turelurelu" as that used to indicate the sound of a flute in the French-language Christmas song "Patapan" recorded in 1720.
The 1913 song was written by lyricist and actor Shannon for the play Shameen Dhu ("Black-Haired Jimmy" or "Dark Jimmy"). Prior to the play's debut, singer Chauncey Olcott took it into the studio to record it on July 30, 1913. Popular, his single peaked at #1 on the music charts in December 1913.
In 1944, Bing Crosby released a version of the song which brought it to public attention again.
“Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral” enters the record as song. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what song can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, song provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q7823950. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1881, 1946 and 1944.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.