Jerry Murad's Harmonicats

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Jerry Murad's Harmonicats were an American harmonica-based group. The band was founded in 1947; by 2009, they were no longer performing. Originally they were named The Harmonica Madcaps and the group consisted of Jerry Murad (chromatic lead harmonica), Bob Hadamik (bass harmonica), Pete Pedersen (chromatic harmonica), and Al Fiore, (chord harmonica). They reformed later as a trio with Murad, Fiore, and bass harmonica player Don Les.

Pedersen and Gail Wallace remained contributors to the group throughout its existence, working on arrangements and occasionally recording.

During 1949 when Don Les' father died, the band called upon Johnny Thompson to fill in for Les on bass harmonica for a couple of weeks. Thompson went on to play with them at their residency gig at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in the early 1950s. In the mid-1950s, Les suffered from a detached retina, and Thompson once again took his place until Les was able to return full time later in the decade

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BIuX7IsdE8

"Peg o' My Heart" is a popular song written by Alfred Bryan (words) and Fred Fisher (music). It was published on March 15, 1913 and it featured in the 1913 musical Ziegfeld Follies.

The song was first performed publicly by Irving Kaufman in 1912 at The College Inn in New York City after he had stumbled across a draft of sheet music on a shelf at the Leo Feist offices.

The song was inspired by the main character in the very successful musical comedy of the time, Peg O' My Heart by J. Hartley Manners, which starred Laurette Taylor in the title role. Taylor appeared on the cover of early published sheet music.

The song, performed by Max Harris and his Novelty Trio (based on a version by The Harmonicats), was used as the theme of the BBC miniseries The Singing Detective (1986). When recording engineer Bill Putnam recorded The Harmonicats version of the song, he became the first person to use artificial reverberation creatively on a pop recording, with the use of the first reverb chamber, which had been set up in the studio's bathroom.

Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys covered the song on their 2011 album, Going Out In Style. Their version features a guest appearance by Bruce Springsteen.