The Band of the Fighting Irish: 4 of the Best Songs from Notre Dame

The tradition of Notre Dame Fighting Irish has endured despite losses, leadership changes, ugly ACC jersey patches, and more. With the team through its ups and downs has been the Band of the Fighting Irish, the country’s first university marching band.

While we all know the Victory March and the Victory Clog, let’s shine a spotlight on some of the other arrangements in the band’s repertoire.

Amazing Grace

First up is this tribute to the victims of September 11 at the 2001 Notre Dame-Michigan State game just eleven days after the attacks. The Notre Dame and Michigan State bands came together to respond to the tragedy as one. Notre Dame’s Director of Bands Ken Dye said of the tribute, “Once we knew [we were playing Michigan State], we called [them] and it took about 10 seconds to agree on ‘Amazing Grace… It was just the right song to get across the emotion of the day… It was a way that transcended schools, nations … it was universally accepted.”

25 or 6 to 4

This Chicago song practically asked for a marching band to make it their own, and can you find a bigger population of Domers and Domer wannabes than that in the Windy City? Forget that the song is just about waking up at about a half an hour ‘til 4 a.m. It has the Midwesternness and ‘70s swagger of the Irish heyday. What else do you need?

Twist and Shout

The Band of the Fighting Irish paid homage to the Fab Four at halftime for the 2019 Virginia Cavaliers game. The band’s version of Twist and Shout calls to mind some more Midwestern awesomeness: the parade scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Theme From New York, New York

While the quality of the 2018 Shamrock Series uniforms is still up for debate, the band put on a show worthy of one of the Big Apple’s biggest stages for the Notre Dame-Syracuse matchup in Yankee Stadium. The band’s version of a Frank Sinatra classic made up for the pinstripe overload.

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