Christmas Day - Mary’s Boy Child & This Day Christ Was Born
Mary’s Boy Child is a 1956 Christmas song written by Jester Hairston. The song had its genesis when a roommate of Hairston asked him to write a song for an upcoming birthday party. Hairston wrote the song with a calypso rhythm because the people at the party would be mainly West Indians. The song's original title was He Pone and Chocolate Tea (pone being a type of corn bread). It was never recorded in this form. Some time later Walter Schumann (conductor of Schumann's Hollywood Choir) asked Hairston to write a new Christmas song for his choir. Hairston remembered his calypso rhythmed song and wrote new lyrics for it. Harry Belafonte heard the song being performed by the choir and sought permission to record it. It was recorded in 1956 and released as a single that year. When the song reached No. 1, Harry Belafonte became the first black male singer to have a No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom. And it was the first song to sell 1 million copies in the UK. [note thanks to Wikipedia]
Mary’s Boy Child - Harry Belafonte
. . . and from a world away . . .
For Unto Us a Child is Born (Handel, 1741) - Warsaw Philharmonic & Choir
For unto us a child is born
Unto us a son is given
And the government shall be upon His shoulder
And His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God,
The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment