No mere green-shaded knock-offs of their more famous Mediterranean counterparts, the Irish Tenors comprise three vocalists with individually distinguished careers who came together for a concert at Ireland's giant Royal Dublin Society complex. The concert, accompanied by a sixty-piece orchestra, was well attended and was recorded for television. What cemented the three singers into a group, however, was the broadcast of the concert during the U.S. television PBS network's fundraiser in March of 1999. The broadcast, with favorites like "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" and "Only Our Rivers Run Free," rode the crest of a new American Irish craze, and the trio was contracted for further recordings.