Maudlin or dated, as some say of it, this tune has a very long recorded history. Someone must have loved it. I recall seeing an old Victor record of the song in my grandfather's house in southeast Texas in the 1940's. My father said it was there when he was a boy, circa 1914-20. It was, apparently, one of my grandmother's very favorite songs and was loved, before that, by her mother. The recording was made on the heavy old rubber-like material where they only recorded on one side of the disc. I think the most recent rendition I have heard was by The Irish Tenors a couple of years ago.