Pirate Songs

Assorted favorites from our friends, our fans, and our own playlists. There are hundreds, if not thousands of actual pirate songs and sea chanties available on the Internet; these are some of the ones we think best capture the … colorful … spirit of Talk Like A Pirate Day.

The original Talk Like A Pirate Day song

We’re honored … an’ humbled … an’ all misty-eyed like, that the first song sent our way was from none other than Tom Smith, The World’s Fastest Filker.  We got this within 24 hours of TLAPD 2003. Now we know why they call him that.

Talk Like A Pirate – Another great TLAPD anthem by our mates Tom Mason & the Blue Buccaneers (with lyrical assistance by Ol’ Chumbucket), on YouTube

The First (and apparently last) Annual “Drunken Pirate” Sing-Along, compiled by Mad Sally from contributions by our mates – musicans and otherwise – around the globe for TLAPD 2011

Our stuff

More songs:

For grownups
  • Barrett’s Privateers – by the late, great Stan Rogers. Our own Jezebel’s favorite pirate song. Check out the kitchen-table version from the bio documentary, One Warm Line…
  • The Jolly Roger, by Roger McGuinn (of The Byrds fame)
  • Sea Monsters, Cap’n Dan & The Scurvy Crew (our favorite pirate rap band (heck, perhaps the only pirate rap band!)
  • Straight Outa Portsmouth – Another pirate rap parody composed for NPR’s All Things Considered by Spin magazine writer Chris Norris.
  • Be a Pirate, Mind Over Matter
  • Blow Me Down, by the Funny Music Project
  • Throw ’em to the Sharks – Gumbo Stu & the Fake McCoys, great parody of a classic
  • The Pirate – Rob Kemppainen
  • Tortuga and Pirate, two modern-day pirate songs by Matthew Moore
  • It’s Great to Be a Pirate – Richard Marcus and Johnny Caruso. This tarrrrrrriffic pirate song was written by Richard Marcus and Johnny Caruso on spec for a never-produced sequel to Disney’s Aladdin, and has been sittin’ in their treasure chest ever since. Then Marcus read about Talk Like A Pirate Day, and decided to release it into the wild for our fans. (Note: We’ve had several requests for permission to use the song in various places. Sorry, but we don’t hold the rights, and we don’t have current contact information for Richard Marcus. So don’t even ask us.)
  • I Wanna Be a Pirate – by Ed Waters, a terrific country-styled song about life in the modern world of outsourced jobs, layoffs and fat-cat plutocrats.
  • The Last Saskatchewan Pirate – the Arrogant Worms
  • Pirates Home – Brian Piontek
  • The Wendy Saga – by singer-songwiter S. J. Tucker – a kick-butt girl-power version of the Peter Pan story
For kids