I was fortunate enough to be born into a newfie family. So I knew and celebrated my Irish heritage from a very young age. I have been known to steal the aux cord and blast some rebel songs amongst my millennial friends when we're drinking. It usually starts with confusion and ends with them singing the chorus along with me 😂
I was born in the late fall of 1978. I was given The Unicorn Record Album by the Handsome, Charming, Entertaining, Funny. Legendary and Extremely Talented Singers and Musicians, The Irish Rovers when I was four. I still have it! I later bought The Unicorn Record Album on CD! I Love This Amazing, Awesome Song and Video! I always have to dance and sing along every time I hear the recordings and songs by The Irish Rovers! Iam of 70% of Irish Decent. n I am going to visit Ireland the Emerald Isle, England, Scotland and Wales one day! The Irish Rovers Should Have been Knighted in the 1980's and NOW!
Went to St. John's Newfoundland last summer for my 19th. The night of I went to Bridie Molloy's pub where they had live music and all sorts of cool stuff. I'll never forget how I felt getting free beers and shots before I even turned 19. The only real thing I remember from that night was this song 😂
I grew up 1st generation irish in NY. I irished danced for years. My dad taught me the lyric and I would sing this at every party he had...there where many...his birthday is today March 16th...I bet he is having a party in Heaven today in heaven....God Bless them all....
I'm 2nd generation on my dad's side,and grew up listening to the Irish Rovers,and the Clancy brothers. I love Irish music! I sang all these to my kids when they were little. I'm on the West Coast.
I had the good fortune to dance on the show with these men… My dancing teacher was Wilcil McDowell ’s wife God bless her God bless you Margaret wherever you are
My family and I went to the Medieval Faire in my neck of the woods about 5 years ago. The day we went there was these 2 guys who played acoustic guitars and sang and this was one of the songs they played. Whenever they sang the "You would think she was queen of the land" lyric my brother and I, being the goofs that we are, would always yell back "AND SHE WAS!" Needless to say, they got a kick out of it. Fast forward to this past August - we went back to that faire and the same duo was there again this year. We sat down to watch them and, before they played this song, they asked the audience to participate by saying, "And she was!" after they said "You would think she was queen of the land". Apparently they had gotten such a kick out of our shenanigans from 5 years earlier that they made it a permanent part of their show from then on. We were tickled to death! They even recognized us in the crowd (probably since we were the loudest lol) and gave us each a copy of their cd. It was too cool :)
Lol that's what I figured everyone did since it's one of those "rule of thumb" things with those old Irish pub songs but I guess they were a tiny bit out of the loop.
I have sung this song in Dublin New York and staten island. In honor of my Scots Irish wife. Her family is from belfast. It is her family's favorite song
45 years ago I spent 3 months in Belfast on busi ess met a lady in the bar spent 3 months fell in love I went back to USA she gave me a black ribbon one year later I went back to marry her she was gone spent a year looking for her never found her .they say she fell in love with a yank he left and broke her heart she disappeared to this day I still carry that black Velvet band
Ifound her I. Truthfully she found me thru my family covid permitting I'm bringing her here IN JUNE to give her a great life what's left if it.oh EVERYONE DREAMS DO COME TRUE KEEP HOPEING MINE DID I FOUND HER !
Reminds me of my dear friend Mavis, who loved to belt this song out, every time we went to the pubs on St Patrick’s Day.. - Everyone loved her, she always had the house ‘going’.. - Miss you xoxo 🍀🍀🍀
The Irish Rovers - Black Velvet Band was my fraternal grandmother's favorite song of the Irish Rovers - which she liked in general. She and her husband - my grandfather were from County Down, Belfast, N. Ireland.
Oh - I have pictures from early childhood of parties my parties held. My parents were friends with the Miller family and my dad, Eamonn, played in a band Will Miller's father ran. My dad even played a wee bit with the Rovers (as they were later called).
Back in the 70's I used to go to a place in Vancouver called King George V pub......all Irish/Scottish/Gaelic music - loved it!! The memories of how much fun I had there just bring tears to my eyes......Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all!
@winter solstice: Really??!! But isn't the war between the Catholics and the Protestants over with now?! We never hear anything more about what goes on in Ireland these days.
@winter solstice You were being angry about absolutely nothing at all (in other words, the average RU-vid commenter) so I just wanted to let you know everything's gonna be okay.
The Irish Rovers have always been 1 of the greatest bands of all time. Growing up, my Dad listened to them all of the time amongst many others of all styles of music. All of their songs are classics & they are musical legends. They did an amazing job with this Harry Hibbs song. It is such a great remake that you would never think it was a remake. I am sure Harry Hibbs is smiling down on an amazing job well done. :)
I love this song ! Reminds me of my childhood ! I used to watch the Irish rovers tv show on tv in the early- mid 1970s. I remember well this song and the unicorn song. Makes me proud to be part Irish ! 🍀Great memories 😀
My paternal grandmother from County Down, Ireland loved this song - Black Velvet Band, and the Unicorn. I like these as well. My father bought the Irish Rovers album.
My mom is in her final days of a horrible cancer that she has been fighting for 7 years. This is the song she chose to play at her service. God bless you Mom. We will always play this in your memory and carry on missing and loving you always ☘️🇮🇪☘️🇮🇪☘️🇮🇪☘️💞
One of the most entertaining and downright fun to listen to bands in history. Watching them in the morning with my first cup of coffee sets a great tone for the rest of the day. Huzzah, Irish Rovers!
I remember a Christmas Eve in '95 and my lovely Irish Mom singing along with a chieftain cd to this. Lost her in 97. Still love this song and the memory.
Great memories from the good old days when TV in Canada was still fun and family-oriented. I loved the Irish Rovers and their version of this song. I remember breaking out into song a lot in those days too...my family didn't seem to mind at all! I haven't had a TV set in years. It was down to PBS and then once they lost a huge part of their funding and there were too many repeats, I just gave up watching TV altogether.
I played that on mye guitar and sang it. Her eyes shone like diamonds ! She took off her black velvet band and let her long hair fall on me, she caressed me - not only with her so beautful hair...
Fantastic song! When I was a little girl, they used to play this song on the radio in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Weren't the Irish Rovers just wonderful? Thanks for posting.
This takes me back many years.One day my husband came home with a thick black velvet headband and carefully arranged it on my head and fiddled with my past-the-waist length hair until it was perfect, then he did a perfect imitation of this right down to the accent. Except that hubby was the perfect Kashmiri-Punjabi Sikh gentleman who had would have gone ballistic if anyone has ever implied that wifey - me - was a pickpocket prostitute. Those were the fun days before life became serious
March 17th. Today I have listened to this song more than a dozen times (audio AND video) as this was a favourite song of mine growing up in the '80s. Being born to and raised by Newfie parents, the Newfoundland culture was the closest thing I got to being Irish. Watching and listening to the Irish Rovers, Carlton Showband, Tommy Hunter, Hee Haw, Hockey Night in Canada, Newfie jigs (Simani, Doreymen, Dick Nolan, Joan Morrissey, Harry Hibbs and more) on either 8-tracks and/or LPs while my mom and dad had their friends over partying - that was my Saturday nights growing up. And while I didn't appreciate all that back then, and while my dad passed away some years ago and things aren't the way they once were, today, March 17th, for some reason and impulsively, I DO appreciate the memories, at least. And "Black Velvet Band" remains, to this day, THE most sentimental, emotionally satisfying, joyous of happiness and personal favourite song for me. And years ago, when I worked with an Irishman, who moved to Toronto from Belfast, made me even more determined to visit Ireland and Northern Ireland, specifically, but not only, Dublin and Belfast before I die. I'm 42 now, I'm just going to have to work that much harder to get there. Happy St. Patrick's Day
I first heard this song as a wee lad with my Nana at an Irish festival in Southern California, I still think of he in conjunction with this song to this day. It has a special place in my heart and The Irish Rovers do a great job with it.
I remember them before the Unicorn - Wilcil was not yet part of the group and Joe played the button accordion. Wilcil joined when Joe took a break. My oldest album is "The First Of The Irish Rovers" recorded at the Ice House in Pasadena in 1966. I saw the current version of the group a couple of years back - still have a good bold sound and excellent arrangements.
I had the opportunity to see them live on PEI for their 25th Anniversary Tour and again in Toronto without Will...was a bit sad as I would have liked to see him again! Love these gents and still play and sing their music :o)
