<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section does not cite any sources . Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (June 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The tune is not an Irish one, but stems from the first line of an English song, The Bowman Prigg's Farewell . The British Union - Catalogue of Early Music (BUCEM) lists four single sheet copies with music, all tentatively dated c 1740, and there is another copy in the Julian Marshal collection at Harvard . However, the tune To the Hundreds of Drury I write is in the ballad opera The Devil of a Duke, 1732, Air No 4 Bowman Prig is mentioned in song No 22 of the ballad opera The Fashionable Lady, 1730, but this may not be a reference to the song . "Bowman Prigg" is a cant term for a pick - purse . </P> <P> The melody and first verse of To the Hundreds of Drury I Write are in John Barry Talley's Secular Music in Colonial Annapolis, 1988 . The Night Before Larry Was Stretched is just possibly a reworking of, or may at least have been inspired by To the Hundreds of Drury . </P> <Ul> <Li> The song was recorded by Frank Harte on the album Dublin Street Songs . As in this recording, the last line of each verse is often performed spoken for effect . </Li> <Li> The song provides the narrative basis for the film O'Donoghue's Opera which was filmed in 1965 with members of The Dubliners; The Night Before Larry was Stretched was performed by Johnny Moynihan . </Li> <Li> Elvis Costello recorded the song on 1996's Common Ground--Voices of Modern Irish Music . </Li> <Li> Recorded by The Wolfe Tones on Irish to the Core (CD - S - 52033). </Li> </Ul>

Elvis costello the night before larry was stretched