Black Bear: Although not familiar to most non-players, those that hear this tune are treated to an uncommon occurrence in bagpipe playing – a strong war cry of “oooooyyy” is yelled out by the drummers when pipe bands play this tune.ģ. All known copies of the original television tapes were lost in the 1970s but the song continues to be a favourite and the radio series can still be found online.Ĥ. Theme song from The Dark Island: This song was in a 1962 British television miniseries set in Benbecula off the North Coast of Scotland. The top five tunes in this list are now traditional bagpipe tunes that almost every piper has played some time – if not all the time – during their careers.ĥ.

Though, they are in fact played on the Uilleann pipes, the national bagpipe of Ireland. Theme song from Braveheart: The 1995 motion picture directing and starring Mel Gibson treated audience goers to a harmonious song played on what many consider to be the Scottish bagpipes. Long Way to the Top was released on the album TNT featuring Bon Scott on the bagpipes.Ħ. AC/DC – Long Way to the Top (If you wanna rock ‘n’ roll): Written by Angus and Malcolm Young and Bon Scott, this song is among the first to use bagpipes as part of a rock ‘n’ roll song in 1975. Most concert-goers will be treated to this song now a days (joined by a local pipe band during the performance of this song).ħ. Paul McCartney – Mull of Kintyre: This song was written in 1977 about the love McCartney’s home in Scotland in an area known as the Mull of Kintyre. Steve Earle – Cooper Head Road: This song begins with an eerie introduction and continues on throughout the song being played on an electric keyboard set to mimic the sounds of the bagpipes.Ĩ. Expect to be impressed with his finger work.ĩ. Today, Stuart Liddell from Inveraray, Scotland is considered one of the premier pipers of our time and plays an amazing version of Thunderstruck on the bagpipes that just has to be heard.

AC/DC – Thunderstruck: Following up on the success with their number seven song on this list, Thunderstruck brought back the bagpipes in 1990. Here is a list of some of the most popular tunes played on the bagpipes, how many do you recognize?ġ0.

Bagpipes playing scotland the brave