Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 3745 (Johnny Box)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Polka32AABBD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Johnny Box
 about these two bars

These two bars are the start of my transcription of how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording Beg 1 (details in the Discography below).

Where do you get the tune titles?
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Johnny Box / O'Connor's / Mary Ann / The Hayden Fancy (1st in set The Cuas Polkas on Beg 1)
What do the "track#tune" codes mean?

cd Discography

Here are all recordings of this tune considering only the indexed recordings. I have discovered by careful listening that these sources are in fact musically the same tune, regardless of the tune titles they use, key changes, retuning, etc. They are listed in order of when they were recorded.

Year
Recorded
Track
#Tune
[Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (instruments). Album details
and contents
19977#1[Beg 1] Beginish. Beginish. Paul McGrattan (flute), Paul O'Shaughnessy (fiddle), Brendan Begley (accordion, vocals), Noel O'Grady (bouzouki).View album details
200220#3[LAC] Tom and Kerry Barrett. Lios A'Cheoil. Traditional Irish Music. Tom Barrett (fiddle), Kerry Barrett (fiddle).View album details

Bibliography

Here are all transcriptions of this tune under any title whatsoever – considering only the indexed books – listed in chronological order. I have discovered by careful comparison that these are very similar to this tune as played on the recordings listed above.

On page 132 of [RM] Randy Miller and Jack Perron. Irish Traditional Fiddle Music. [available]
As polka #81 in [HN] Henrik Norbeck. Henrik Norbeck's Abc Tunes. [available]
As tune #36 in [IBPS] Pat Conway. Ireland's Best Polkas and Slides. [available]

If you are considering using the above transcriptions to help you learn this tune, I invite you to check these practical Tips for Learning Irish Traditional Music. See also: So why do you bother indexing books and abc?

Year of the oldest source for this tune, considering the recordings and transcriptions listed above (note that I concentrate on sources after 1900): 1977