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Mary's Boy Child
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Wikipedia article
"'Mary's Boy Child'" is a 1956 Christmas song, written by Jester Hairston. It is widely performed as a Christmas carol. The tune used in "Hark now hear the angels sing, a new king born today", comes from the folk song "Bingo" .
History
The song had its genesis when Hairston was sharing a room with a friend. The friend asked him to write a song for a birthday party.'Boney M', John Shearlaw and David Brown, Hamlin Paperbacks, 1979 , page 105 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, at the time conducting Schumann's Hollywood Choir, asked Hairston to write a new Christmas song for his choir. Hairston remembered the calypso rhythm from his old 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. Belafonte released it again the following year in 1957 on his album 'An Evening with Belafonte', using a different, longer take. This longer version was also released in the UK as a single (with a B-side of "Eden Was Just Like This"), where it became the first UK number one to have a playing time of over four minutes. It reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in November 1957, and has since sold over 1.19 million copies there.
In 1962, the full-length version was also added to a re-issue of Belafonte's previously released album 'To Wish You a Merry Christmas'.
Similarly, the song was arranged for chorus and recorded by the conductor Leonard De Paur for Columbia Records on the album 'Calypso Christmas' in 1956 (Columbia, CL 923 Mono LP, 1956).[https://archive.org/details/CALYPSOCHIRSTMAS/02.DeVirginMaryHadABabyBoy.mp3 'Mary's Little Boychild' on the album 'Calypso Chirstmas' - conductor and arranger Leonard De Paur Here on archive.org']
Covers
One of the best-known cover versions of the song is from the German-based disco-group Boney M. from 1978, "Mary's Boy Child Oh My Lord." This version returned the song to the top of the UK chart. It is one of the best-selling singles of all time in the UK, and has sold 1.87 million copies as of November 2015.
When Hairston found out how well the Boney M version had done, he said: "God bless my soul. That's tremendous for an old fogey like me". He was 78 at the time.
The song has been recorded twice by Andy Williams; once on his 1965 album 'Merry Christmas' and again on his 1997 album 'We Need A Little Christmas'. It has also been recorded by The Four Lads in 1956 and Mahalia Jackson in the late 1950s, both under the title 'Mary's Little Boy Chile'. Other recordings include The Gospel Clefs in (1973), Evie (1977), Anne Murray, The Brothers Four, Charlotte Church ('Dream a Dream', 2000), Greg MacDonald, The Lettermen (1966), The Merrymen, Jim Reeves (1963), Rolf Harris (1970), Roger Whittaker, The Little River Band, The Three Degrees, The Pete King Chorale, Nina & Frederik, Carola, Vikingarna, Kiri Te Kanawa (1984), Jos Mari Chan (1990), Al Bano and Romina Power (1991), De Nattergale (1991), Tom Jones (1993), Jose Feliciano,
John Denver (1990), Cranberry Singers (1998) and the cast of 'Glee' (2013), RJ Jacinto (2015), Harry Connick Jr, Bryn Terfel, Connie Talbot and many others. The Bee Gees recorded the song as part of a medley with "Silent Night" for their 1968 album 'Horizontal', although it was only officially released as a bonus track in 2006. The track is erroneously titled "Silent Night/Hark the Herald Angels Sing."
The song was also included on the 1991 live concert 'A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert', featuring Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade and Wynton Marsalis.
Additional covers include a version by the Australian pop group Hi-5, released in 1998, a version by its American counterpart, released in 2005 but recorded in 2004, The Wiggles on their 2004 album 'Santa's Rockin'; Juice Newton's folk-rock version on her 2007 'The Gift of Christmas'; Mandisa on her 2008 album 'It's Christmas'; Paul Poulton's reggae version on his 2008 album 'Grooves 4 Scrooge'; Daniel O'Donnell on his 2010 album 'O Holy Night'; and Joe McElderry on his 2011 album 'Classic Christmas'.
In 2012, the Portuguese priest Antnio Cartageno made a choral arrangement for the song.
Translations
Translated versions include '"Hankien Joulu"' recorded by Georg Malmstn, '"Kauan Sitten Beetlehem"' recorded by Petri Laaksonen (fi), '"Marian Poika"' by Tarja Turunen, '"Varje mnniska har ett ljus"' recorded by Jan Malmsj,[http://smdb.kb.se/catalog/id/001548791 Information] p Svensk mediedatabas '"...und Frieden fr die Welt"' by Rolf Zuckowski, '"Maria's Kind"' by La Esterella, '"Bethlehem"' by Rob de Nijs, '"Det hnde sig fr lnge sen"' recorded by Kikki Danielsson on her 1987 Christmas album 'Min barndoms jular',[http://smdb.kb.se/catalog/id/001888108 Information] at Svensk mediedatabas '"Det hnde sig fr lnge sen"' recorded by Stefan Borsch on his 1981 Christmas album 'I kvll jag tnder ett ljus',[http://smdb.kb.se/catalog/id/001548791 Information] at Svensk mediedatabas '"Himlens hemlighet"' recorded by Tommy Krberg and '"Du r som en sommardag"' by dance band Schytts. The Schytts version was in the Swedish chart Svensktoppen for 10 weeks in 1979, where it peaked at No. 1. "'Ang Batang Hesus"' by mayor_junneil (Filipino). The Sinhala translation is "'Kalakata Pera e Bethleheme'" Sinhala: '" "'.
Other uses
The words and music featured on a miniature sheet issued with the 1983 Christmas stamps of the Caribbean island of St Kitts, while the adjacent island of Nevis issued a complementary sheet featuring the "Calypso Carol".
The tune is used as the basis for a widespread chant used in British football usually referencing a particular team's closest rivals and the historical boxing day derby games that took place until the 1980's.
References
Category:Songs about Jesus
Category:Songs about children
Category:American Christmas songs
Category:Christmas carols
Category:European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles
Category:Number-one singles in Germany
Category:Number-one singles in Sweden
Category:UK Singles Chart number-one singles
Category:Number-one singles in Switzerland
Category:Songs written by Jester Hairston
Category:1956 songs
Category:RCA Victor singles
Category:Christmas number-one singles in the United Kingdom
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