In Person at Carnegie Hall was the seminal Irish folk group The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem's most successful album. It was recorded in Carnegie Hall on 17 March 1963 at their annual St. Patrick's Day concert. In the documentary, "The Story of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem", Paddy Clancy said that this was the best album the group recorded. The album spent months on the American Top LPs chart and broke the top fifty albums in December 1963, an unprecedented occurrence for an Irish folk music recording at that time. It has never been out of print since its initial release.
Two songs on the album, "The Juice of the Barley" and "Oro Se Do Bheatha Bhaile," were recorded during their previous Carnegie Hall concert from 3 November 1962. When it was first released in late 1963, only around a third of the concert appeared on the record. In 2009, the Legacy Edition was released, which contained the complete recording of the concert including banter and song introductions. Princeton University professor of history, Sean Wilentz, wrote the liner notes for the new release.
Reception.
The reviewer for "Billboard" chose the album as "A Billboard Pick" and referred to it as a "fine" recording with "a number of good outings." The review singled out the "Children's Medley" and the poem, "O'Driscoll", for showing another side of the group. The magazine also recommended the song "Patriot Game" for disk jockeys to play for their audiences.
The album sold well over the long term, becoming the best-selling record released by the Clancy Brothers. In January 1966, almost two and a half years after the album's release, Columbia selected the recording as one of their "best catalog sellers...that every dealer should carry." Although not released until 1965 in Australia, "Billboard" noted that the album was "chalking up big sales" there.
Legacy Edition.
In the legacy edition, the full concert including dialogues can be listened to. Also, the two songs recorded in 1962 were included in this edition.
Personnel.
Since Paddy did not bring his harmonica for the concert, the sound of harmonica is not heard in this album.
Chart position.
"In Person at Carnegie Hall" spent twelve weeks on "Billboard Magazine's" list of the top 150 full-length albums of all genres released in the United States. The album debuted on the chart on 16 November 1963 at #145 and began to rise in the weeks thereafter. In December, the album jumped from #106 to #50, its highest position on the chart. After 21 December the album began to fall, reviving briefly in late January 1964, when it again broke the top 100. It left the charts in early February.