Tune of the Day: Mighty Oregon
“Mighty Oregon” is the song played by the Oregon Marching Band at home football and basketball games. Originally titled “The Mighty Oregon March”, it was written by Director of Bands, Albert Perfect, and was first performed in 1916.
For the song's most popular section, Perfect fashioned a new melody to fit into the harmony from “It's a Long Way to Tipperary”, a hit 1912 World War I march. The catchy popularity of the harmony was not lost on Perfect, a well-educated in music theory, who originally subtitled the song “The Tipperary of the West”. The new march attained rapid popularity: during the next few years, “Mighty Oregon” was published as a solo piano piece, released nationally as a piano roll, and even played by the 162nd Infantry Band in France.