A regular member of the Metropolitan Opera, Ernestine (Tini) Schumann-Heink was the first to record "Danny Boy" (Frederick Weatherly) in 1917. Wikipedia: "Initially written to a tune other than "Londonderry Air", the words to "Danny Boy" were penned by English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly in Bath, Somerset in 1910. After his Irish-born sister-in-law Margaret (known as Jess) in the United States sent him a copy of "Londonderry Air" in 1913 (an alternative version of the story has her singing the air to him in 1912 with different lyrics), Weatherly modified the lyrics of "Danny Boy" to fit the rhyme and meter of "Londonderry Air".

When Conway Twitty (Harold Jenkins) recorded "Danny Boy" in 1959 it was considered by many at the time to be a mortal sin and was banned by the BBC. Obviously this was placed on vinyl before Conway's success in country music. This reached number ten on the Top One Hundred and number eighteen on the R&B chart.