Toora Loora Looral

Subject: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 10:06 AM

I know it's a folk song, and changeable, etc., but I'm curious as to whether this title ends in "Loora" (which I hear and see a lot) or "Looral" which I see a lot. Thanks.
Sheila

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 10:19 AM

Which song are we talking about, Irish Lullaby, Reconclliation or something else altogether?

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 10:24 AM

"That's an Irish lullaby." I didn't know there was anything other. Sheila

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: Noreen
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 10:26 AM

It's not a folk song, it was written for the 1944 Bing Crosby film 'Going my Way' so it has one set of correct words.

Most versions (I can't find an original) such as this one seem to call it Toora Loora Looral.

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 10:58 AM

Earlier than Going My Way. The Levy Collection has its sheet music (click here):

Title: (Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral). That's An Irish Lullaby.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Lyric and Music by J.R. Shannon.
Publication: New York: M. Witmark & Sons, 1913.
Instrumentation: piano and voice
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
First Line: Over in Killarney, many years ago, me Mither sang a song to me
First Line of Chorus: Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li, Too-ra-loo-ra- loo-ral, Hush now, don't you cry!

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: Pauline L
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 11:17 AM

I know a completely different song that use "Toora Loora Loo" in the chorus. It's Jug of Punch.

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,The Shambles
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 12:38 PM

Did Steve martin sing this in one of his movies?

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 07:34 PM

Well, Noreen and Masato, thank you! So it's definitely "Toora Loora Looral"! I've been singing it wrong for years!

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 08:23 PM

The "phrase" itself is a set of common nonsense-words that did extensive service in literally hundreds of stage and music hall songs during the 19th century. Most are long forgotten. It's a basic sound pattern, though (and extra-useful because completely meaningless), and turns up in songs in quite a few European countries; likely further afield also.

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 11:18 PM

Fal-da-diddle-dee is also a useful phrase, as in:

With me deer-stalker hat
And me fal-da-diddle-dee
I was the lover of Lady Chaterlee.

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 02:07 AM

When I began to study English "many years ago" as in the lyrics, I practiced L and R pronunciations, listening to and singing this song (incidentally, there're no differenciation between L and R sounds in Japanese).

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 02:42 AM

There's a typo in the title TOO-A-LOO-RA-LOO-RAL That's An Irish Lullaby in the DT.

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,steve
Date: 10 May 07 - 08:03 AM

Dropkick murphys-captain kellys kitchen lol

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: scrimnet
Date: 11 May 07 - 06:03 AM

Did'nt Flanagan and Allen use the refrain in "Any Umbrllas (to mend today)"

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 May 07 - 07:14 AM

From the first edition of the Grove Dictionary:

TURE-LURE (soft u) or TOURE-LOURE, a very ancient lyrical burden or refrain, probably of Provençal origin. The old English form is "tirra-lirra". (Shakespeare, "The lark that tirra-lirra chants". Compare the French "Turlut", a titlark; "Turlutaine", a bird-organ). In old French music it is also found as "Tur-lu-tu-tu", "Tur-lu-ru" (in a popular air "Io canto tur-lu-ru"), "tur-lur-ibo" etc. The form "turelure" was also employed for "chanson". It often occurs in the old French burlesques. The following specimens are taken from Les Parodies du Nouveau Théatre Italien, 1731.

X:1
T:Ho! Ho! toure-louribo
M:C|
L:1/8
K:G Minor
G A B c|d2 d2 c2 d2| B2 G2 B4   | A4      G A B c|d4
w:Al-lons tot, que ma ri-vale ex-pi-re oh! oh! tou-re lou-ri-bo!
G2 d2 |c2 B2 A2 G2|^F2 D2 G4   |T^F4      G A B G|A4
w:Quoi con-tre moi tout con-spi-re, oh! oh! tou-re lou-ri-bo!
G2 d2 |c2 B2 A2 G2|^F2 D2 d2 d2| d2 c G TA3    G|G4|]
w:Quand j'a-vance, on me re-ti-re, oh! oh! tou-re lou-ri-bo.

X:2
T:Vaudeville in 'Les Cahos'
M:3/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=180
K:D Minor
d2 A4   | B4      A2 | G2   A4      |TF4 D2|
w:On ne peut, quoi-que l'on fas-se,
F2 G2 A2| F2 B4    |(G3    F) G2 | A6   |
w: s'em-pe-cher d'ai-mer a* son tour;
F2 F2 B2| c4      c2 | c2   G4      |TA4 F2|
w:Les pois-sons tomb-ent dans la nas-se,
c2 d2 e2| f e f g f e| d ^c d e f d| g6   |
w:Les coeurs se tou-re lou-re lou-re lou-re lou-re lou-re lour
f2 e2 d2|^c4      d2 | e2 Te4      | d6 |]
w:Les coeurs se ren-dent a l'a-mour.

The term still survives in English popular music in the forms "tooral-looral-looral" and "tol-de-rol".

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: MartinRyan
Date: 11 May 07 - 07:35 AM

And, if I remember aright, "Tureluur" is the Dutch name for the wader-known-in-English as a redshank! Think I need a walk....
Regards

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: danensis
Date: 11 May 07 - 03:35 PM

Oh, no, now you've got me thinking about "the lover of Lady Chatterlee". Who was it used to sing that?

John

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: Jim Lad
Date: 11 May 07 - 03:48 PM

I can't believe the author got it wrong!
Its Tooralooraloora! I can't change it NOW!
Tooraloo!
Jim

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,Snaffles
Date: 12 May 07 - 11:01 AM

Steve Martin did sing it (I think the film was called "The Housesitters" with Goldie Hawn). I could never quite listen to "An Irish Lullaby" in the same way after it...

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,Rachel
Date: 13 May 07 - 03:02 AM

Here's another mutation of the phrase:


From the bank and from the river
He flash'd into the crystal mirror,
"Tirra lirra," by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.

From "The Lady of Shalot" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: mg
Date: 13 May 07 - 07:49 PM

I have never heard looral and my father's father knew Bing Crosby's father..mg

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: mg
Date: 13 May 07 - 07:52 PM

Not to change the subject but we are talking about Bing Crosby here..I think almost the greatest voice ever..my grandfather, who died in the Spanish FLu, was supposedly a great singer..I wonder if they sang together..he worked on the railroads in Tacoma..I think Bing's did too..wonder if he was a musical influence on Bing Himself. I actually did write a song that my grandfather appears in and it is about the railroads so if anyone wants it email me at [e-mail]...(almost anyone)mg

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 13 May 07 - 09:19 PM

Looking at the sheet music from 1913 right now, it is indeed "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral". I can't see Mr. Shannon getting too peeved at all the tenors rounding out that last resonant ah, rather than closing it up with a suffocating "L". Surely he forgives.

Can't see or hear the words without wanting to raise a wee drop in honor of Barry Fitzgerald's Father Fitzgibbon, and to my sister who used the lovely air for her daughter's lullaby.

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,Norval
Date: 14 May 07 - 12:00 PM

In the chorus this song seems to have a variation on the Too-Ra phrase.

SWEET BETSEY FROM PIKE
John A. Stone, 1858

Oh, don't you remember sweet Betsey from Pike,
Who crossed the big mountain with her lover Ike,
With two yoke of cattle, a large yellow dog,
A tall Shanghai rooster and one spotted hog.

Chorus:
Tooral lal looral lal looral lal la.

thread 24592

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 14 May 07 - 01:06 PM

As mentioned earlier, hundreds (perhaps thousands) of different songs used the phrase in one form or another. Probably it would not be a good idea to quote them all here.

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,Jan
Date: 27 Jul 08 - 04:46 PM

Yes, Steve Martin did sing this in that movie he made with Goldie Hawn, "Housesitter"

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: GUEST,rilene
Date: 15 Apr 10 - 11:01 AM

Many thanks to masato sakurai who posted the link above to the Levy collection. My mother's funeral is tomorrow, and her grandchildren wanted this to be played. Thanks to you I was able to send this pdf to the organist.

Thank you so much!
Rilene

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: clueless don
Date: 16 Apr 10 - 09:31 AM

Tour the Urals, Loora?
Too raw, Loora - lie!

There's the punchline. The set-up is left as an exercise for the reader.

Don

Subject: RE: Toora Loora Looral
From: Weasel
Date: 16 Apr 10 - 10:10 AM

Years ago when I was translating some french songs into English I had no end of trouble with one particular chorus, which turned out to be a french equivalent of "with a whack fol me diddle". There should be some way of indicating when words don't mean anything, like print them in a different colour or enclose them in some indicator like "bol..wacky macky bing bong...locks".