Song · Dropkick Murphys
“I'm Shipping Up to Boston” by Dropkick Murphys
From the album The Warrior’s Code (2005)
“I'm Shipping Up to Boston” by Dropkick Murphys appears on 6 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 2007 and 2024. It was first released in 2005 on the album The Warrior’s Code. Its best result is #7 on the WFNX Top 100 Songs of 2007. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #180 alternative song of 2007 and #7,650 alternative song of all time.
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Video from YouTube (Mark Higgins). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
Dropkick Murphys found the words to "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" in Woody Guthrie's archives, where Ken Casey turned up a scrap of paper about a sailor who loses his wooden leg climbing the topsail and heads for Boston to track it down. The band set it to music, the same trick they'd pulled with "Gonna Be a Blackout Tonight" on 2003's Blackout, first cut it for Give 'Em the Boot IV in 2004 and then re-recorded it for The Warrior's Code in 2005.
Casey produced it with David Bianco, and it's Celtic punk at a full gallop. The Departed put it in front of the whole world in 2006, and it became their biggest single, going platinum and selling over 1,044,000 downloads without ever reaching the Hot 100. The video has the band on the East Boston waterfront, and President Joe Biden took the stage to it in Ireland in April 2023.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 7 | WFNX Boston, MA | WFNX Top 100 Songs of 2007 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 76 | WFNX | WFNX Top 101 Songs of the Decade (December 2009) | 101 |
| 2010 | 303 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) | 885 |
| 2022 | 494 | X96 | X96 Top 500 Alternative Songs of All Time | 500 |
| 2023 | 76 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
| 2024 | 838 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs of the 21st Century | 1055 |
Also listed as: I'm Shipping Up To Boston; Shipping Up To Boston.
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