John O' Dreams comes from Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony (No 6),
Groovy kind of Love comes from a Clementi sonata - no such thing as a new tune?
Tom Paxton song was "Last thing on my Mind": it was his DAUGHTER who heard someone in a pub in St Andrews (Scotland) announce it as traditional Irish. "My Dad wrote that" she said to a disbelieving audience.
One of the best stories is Eric Bogle's re "No Man's Land" (aka as Green fields of France): in a report in one of our better newspapers, Tony Blair had allegedly said it was one of his favourite songs, and the journalist had added that it was written by a soldier who died in the first World War!
Incidentally, does anyone know how old "the Irish Rover " is? I recently found a version in my granfather's hand where he had obviously changed the names in one of the verses to fit with his fellow-soldiers in WW1, so must be older than 1917 I guess.
TB