donderdag 25 april 2013

I'll See You In The Spring, When The Birds Begin To Sing (1927) / Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well (1937) / Titanic (1948)


As I said in the preceding playlist Libby Holman's and Josh White's "Fare Thee Well" (SEE: Joop's Musical Flowers: Dink's Song (1904) / Fare Thee Well (1942)IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED with Georgia White's "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well" in this playlist, although the label says the composer is ALSTON. And that name also is on the label of Libby Holman's and Josh White's "Fare Thee Well".

(o) Georgia White (1937) (as "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well")
Recorded October 5, 1937 in New York
Released on  Decca 7405 A;



Listen here:


Or here:




(c) Connie Boswell (1938) (as "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well"
Nr 11 hit USA
Recorded April 9, 1938, Los Angeles CA.
Released on Decca 1862



Listen here:




(c) Count Basie (1939) (as "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well")
Recorded January 26, 1939 in New York
Released on Decca 2780



Listen here:




(c) Hollywood Flames (1954) (as "Fare Thee Well")
Super-rare recording, released on Money 202
 




But Georgia White's "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well", in his turn, has a striking resemblance with "I'll See You In The Spring, When The Birds Begin To Sing" (which also has the "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well"-chorus.
Recorded by the Memphis Jug Band on October 20, 1927 (Victor 21066)



You gonna keep on fooling around, you be six foot in the grave 
It's fare you, honey fare you well 
You gonna keep on fooling around, you be six foot in the grave 
It's the last time, honey it's the last time 

I'll see you in the spring, when the birds begin to sing 
It's fare you, honey fare you well 
I'll see you in the spring, when the birds begin to sing 
It's fare you, honey fare you well 

Instrumental section 

You gonna keep on fooling around, you be six foot in the grave 
It's fare you, honey fare you well 
You gonna keep on fooling around, you be six foot in the grave 
It's fare thee, honey fare you well 

I'll see you in the fall, When you have no friend at all 
It's fare you, honey fare you well 
I'll see you in the fall, When you have no friend at all 
It's the last time, honey it's the last time 

And I'm going away, just to worry you off my mind 
You keep me troubled honey all the time 
And I'll see you in the spring, when the birds begin to sing 
It's fare thee, honey fare you well

Listen here:




The song was also recorded in Chicago in January 1928 by Johnnie Head under the title of "Fare Thee Blues" 
Released on Paramount 12628. He recorded 2 parts, here's part 1:



Listen here:




Joe Calicott covered it in 1930 as "Fare Thee Well Blues".
Recorded on February 20, 1930 in Memphis, Tenn.
Released on Brunswick 7166.



Listen here:




And the tune was also used by Leadbelly as the basis of a ballad ("The Titanic") on the sinking of the Titanic ("Fare Thee Titanic Fare Thee Well").
Recorded  in 1935 for the Library of Congress



Listen here: 




It's refrain of “Fare thee, Titanic, fare thee well” in his turn is strongly reminsicent of Virginia Liston’s 1926 "Titanic Blues".
 


Or here:





Already in November 1916 Marie Cahill recorded a song titled "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well", which, apart from the "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well" frase, is a different song, composed by John Queen and Walter Wilson.
 

Here's the sheetmusic of that song

Listen here:




NOTE: musically speaking "Fare Thee, Honey, Fare Thee Well" in this playlist, has also a little resemblance to "Careless Love" (AKA "Loveless Love").




Dink's Song (1904) / Fare Thee Well (1942)


John A. Lomax tells how he found the song in 1904, when he made his first field trip for Harvard University: "I found Dink scrubbing her man's clothes in the shade of their tent across the Brazos river from the A. & M. College in Texas. Professor James C. Nagle of the College faculty was the supervising engineer of a levee-building company and he had invited me to come along and bring my Edison recording machine. The Negroes were trained levee workers from the Mississippi River.

'Dink knows all the songs,' said her companion. But I did not find her helpful until I walked a mile to a farm commissary and bought her a pint of gin. As she drank the gin, the sounds from her scrubbing board increased in intensity and in volume. She worked as she talked: 'That little boy there ain't got no daddy an' he ain't got no name. I comes from Mississippi and we never saw these levee niggers, till us got here. I brung along my little boy. My man drives a four-wheel scraper down there where you see the dust risin'. I keeps his tent, cooks his vittles and washes his clothes. Some day Ize goin' to wrap up his wet breeches and shirts, roll 'em up in a knot, put 'em in the middle of the bed, and tuck down the covers right nice. Then I'm going on up the river where I belong.' She sipped her gin and sang and drank until the bottle was empty.

The original Edison record of 'Dink's Song' was broken long ago, but not until all the Lomax family had learned the tune. The one-line refrain, as Dink sang it in her soft lovely voice, gave the effect of a sobbing woman, deserted by her man. Dink's tune is really lost; what is left is only a shadow of the tender, tragic beauty of what she sang in the sordid, bleak surroundings of a Brazos Bottom levee camp.

Lomax continues to say: "The lyrics and music of Dink's Song' are to me uniquely beautiful. Professor Kittredge praised them without stint. Carl Sandburg compares them to the best fragments of Sappho. As you might expect, Carl prefers Dink to Sappho.

"When I went to find her in Yazoo, Mississippi, some years later, her women friends, pointing to a nearby graveyard, told me, Dink's done planted up there.' I could find no trace of her little son who 'didn't have no name.'

"Dink's Song" was published in 1934 in John and Alan Lomax's "American Ballads and Folk Songs"







The first artist that recorded "Dink's Song" (as "Fare Thee Well") was Libby Holman with guitar accompaniment by Josh White. Strangely she begins with the last chorus (see lyrics above)

(o) Libby Holman (1942) (as "Fare Thee Well")
Recorded on March 23, 1942 in New York

78 RPM - Libby Holman - Baby Baby / Fare Thee Well - Decca - USA - 18304

https://www.wirz.de/music/whitefrm.htm


Listen here:



http://www.wirz.de/music/whitefrm.htm



(c) Josh White (1944) (as "Fare Thee Well")
Released on the album "Songs by Josh White" (Asch album # 348)

Josh White - I Got A Head Like A Rock / Fare Thee Well (Shellac, 10", 78 RPM) | Discogs

Illustrated Josh White discography


Listen here:






Libby Holman's and Josh White's "Fare Thee Well" IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED with Georgia White's "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well", recorded in 1937 on the Decca-label, although the label says the composer is ALSTON. And that name also is on the label of Libby Holman's and Josh White's "Fare Thee Well".
The version by Georgia White has different lyrics and the melody is also different.

SEE NEXT LINK for Georgia White's "Fare Thee Honey Fare Thee Well".

http://jopiepopie.blogspot.nl/2013/04/ill-see-you-in-spring-when-birds-begin.html



But here are some covers of the version originally recorded by Libby Holman and Josh White.

(c) Burl Ives (1951) (as "Fare Thee Well O Honey")

Recorded October 24, 1951 in New York City 
Released in 1960 on the next album

Burl Ives - The Return Of The Wayfaring Stranger (Vinyl, LP) | Discogs


Burl Ives

Listen here:





(c) Burl Ives (1955) (as "Sad Man's Song (Fare Thee Well, O Honey)")

Recorded April 1955 in New York City

Decca matrix 87822. Sad man's song (Fare Thee well, o honey) / Burl Ives - Discography of American Historical Recordings

45cat - Burl Ives - Songs For Men And About Men Part 1 - Decca - USA

Burl Ives - Men: Songs For And About Men (Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono) | Discogs


Praguefrank's Country Discography 2: Ives Burl

Listen here:



 


(c) Cisco Houston (1954) (as "Dink's Song")


http://www.folkways.si.edu/cisco-houston/hard-travelin/american-folk/music/album/smithsonian

Listen here:






(c) Ellen Stekert (1957)
 (as "Dink's Song")



Listen here:




(c) Herta Marshall (1957) (as "Fare Thee Well")

To You with Love: American Folk Songs for Women | Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Listen here:






(c) Guy Carawan (1957) (as "Dink's Song")

Released in 1960

http://www.45cat.com/record/jea4

http://www.discogs.com/Guy-Carawan-Guy-Carawan-Sings-Songs-From-The-South/release/1701705



(c) Jack Elliott (1958) (as "Dink's Song")

Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Jack Takes The Floor | Discogs

Listen here: 




Or here:





(c) Pete Seeger (1959) (as "Dink's Song")


American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 3 | Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Pete Seeger - American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 3 | Discogs

Listen here:





(c) Barbara Dane (1959) ("Dink's Blues")

Barbara Dane, vocal; Frank Hamilton, guitar; Bill Lee, bass
Recorded on location at the Newport Folk Festival, Rhode Island on July 11-12, 1959

Folk Festival At Newport Vol. 2 (Vinyl, LP, Mono) | Discogs

Listen here:





(c) Leon Bibb (1959) (as "Dink's Blues")

http://www.discogs.com/Leon-Bibb-Sings-Folk-Songs/release/4076715

Listen to a sample here






(c) Judi Resnick (1961) (as "Dink's Song")


Judi Resnick - You've Heard My Voice (Vinyl, LP, Album) | Discogs

Listen here





(c) Dave Van Ronk (1961) (as "Dink's Song") 


Dave Van Ronk - Dave Van Ronk Sings (Vinyl, LP, Album) | Discogs

Listen here





(c) Bob Dylan (1961)  (as "Dink's Song")


Dink’s Song | The Official Bob Dylan Site

Dink's Song

No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (A Martin Scorsese Picture) | Discogs

Listen here: 





(c) Carolyn Hester (1962) 
 (as "Dink's Song")

Carolyn Hester - Carolyn Hester | Releases | Discogs

Listen here





(c) Jack McDuff (1961) (as "Dink's Blues")

Brother Jack McDuff - The Honeydripper | Releases | Discogs


Listen here





(c) Bob Gibson (1964) (as "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)")


Album – WHERE I’M BOUND | Bob Gibson Folk Legacy

Listen here





(c) Tom Paxton incorporated "Fare Thee Well" in 1964 in his tribute to Cisco Houston: "Fare Thee Well, Cisco"


Tom Paxton - Ramblin' Boy (Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo) | Discogs

Listen here



 

(c) Limeliters (1963)  (as "Faretheewell (Dink' s Song)")


The Limeliters - Fourteen 14K Folksongs (Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono) | Discogs

Composer credit| : Bess B. Lomax - John A. Lomax - arr Bob Gibson

Images for The Limeliters - Fourteen 14K Folksongs



(c) Catherine McKinnon (1965)  (as "Dink's Song")

Catherine McKinnon - Voice Of An Angel Volume II (Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono) | Discogs
Listen here






(c) Benji Aronoff (1965) (as "Dink's Blues")

Benji Aronoff - The Two Sides Of Benji Aronoff (Vinyl, LP, Album) | Discogs



(c) Simon Sisters (1964) (as "Dinks Blues)


Cuddlebug (The Happiness Blanket) | Discogs

Listen here:






(c) Fred Neil (1966)  (as "Faretheewell (Fred's Tune)")


Fred Neil - Fred Neil (Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono) | Discogs

Fred Neil (album) - Wikipedia

Listen here: 






(c) Big 3 (1968) (as "Nora' s Dove) (Dinks Song)")

The Big 3 Featuring Cass Elliot - Nora's Dove (Dink's Song) (Vinyl, 7", Single) | Discogs


Listen here





(c) Rick Cunha (1980)

http://www.discogs.com/Rick-Cunha-Moving-Pictures/release/3936941



(c) John Stewart (1994) (as "Dink's Blues")

Recorded live at the Turf Inn, Dalry, Scotland October 1994

John Stewart - Bandera (CD, Album) | Discogs

Listen here






(c) Odetta (1999) (as "Dink's Blues") 


Odetta - Blues Everywhere I Go (CD, Album) | Discogs





(c) Roger McGuinn (2001) (as "Dink's Song")


Roger McGuinn's Folk Den » Blog Archive » Dink's Song

Listen here: ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden/php/music/Dink.mp3



(c) Jeff Buckley (2003) 
 (as "Dink's Song")
Recorded in the summer of 1993

Jeff Buckley - Live At Sin-é (CD, Remastered) | Discogs





(c) Gabriel Rios (2007)  (as "Dink's Song")

Gabriel Rios - Angelhead (CD, Album, Limited Edition) | Discogs

Listen here






(c) Oscar Isaac (2013) (as "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)")
(c) Oscar Isaac and Marcus Mumford (2013) (as "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)")

Both versions above are from the soundtrack of the Coen Brother's movie "Inside Llewyn Davis".

http://www.contactmusic.com/press/nonesuch-releases-soundtrack-to-coen-brothers-inside-llewyn-davis-on-september-17th-2013

Listen here





More versions: Folk Music Index - Devil' to Dio



NOTE: NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH: "Dink's Blues" by Dink Johnson (1947)





zaterdag 20 april 2013

Happy Day (1913) / Oh Happy Day (1967)


"Oh Happy Day" is a 1967 gospel music arrangement of an 18th century hymn.
Recorded by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, it became an international hit in 1969, reaching No. 4 in the US and No. 2 in the UK pop charts.
In Germany and The Netherlands "Oh Happy Day" topped the charts for 2 weeks.
It has since become a gospel music standard.

Origins
Edwin Hawkins’ funk style arrangement of the hymn "Happy Day" has a long pedigree: It began as a hymn written in the mid-18th century ("O happy day, that fixed my choice") by English clergyman Philip Doddridge (based on Acts 8:35).
In 1854 it was set to a melody by Edward F. Rimbault, who also added a chorus, and was commonly used for baptismal or confirmation ceremonies in the UK and USA.

Some sources claim it was set to an earlier melody ("Festus") by J. A. Freylinghausen.
This tune was indeed written in 1714, but the connection between Doddridge lyrics and Freylinghausen's FESTUS-tune only dates from the middle of the twentieth century, as in Congregational Praise (1951).

The Doddridge/Rimbault song was first recorded by the Trinity Choir
Trinity Choir consisted of the following singers:
Olive Kline (vocalist: soprano vocal)
Marguerite Dunlap (vocalist: contralto)
Harry MacDonough (vocalist: tenor vocal)
Reinald Werrenrath (vocalist: baritone vocal)

(o) Trinity Choir (1913)  (as "Happy Day")
Recorded July17, 1913 (Camden, New Jersey)
Matrix B-13601.
Released on Victor 17499







A song which suggests that we can be happy when we do what Jesus tells us to do that we might have salvation from sin is "O Happy Day" (#428 in "Hymns for Worship Revised", and #592 in "Sacred Selections for the Church").

The text was written by Philip Doddridge (1702-1751). His hymns were produced in the 1730′s and 1740′s, with perhaps a few around 1750, but very few were published during his lifetime, having been circulated only in manuscript. However, in 1755, four years after his death, a collection of them was made and printed by his friend Job Orton, and "O Happy Day," under the heading "Rejoicing in our Covenant engagements to God (2 Chron. 15:15)," was first included in it.


The refrain ("Oh Happy Day, Oh Happy Day, when Jesus washed my sins away! He taught me how to watch and pray, and live rejoicing every day".)  which was not part of Doddridge's hymn above here, but was added later in 1854, seems to have been adapted from a secular song, "Happy Land, Whate'er My Fate In Life May Be," that was either written or arranged by Rimbault.

Edward Francis Rimbault was born in London, England, on June 13, 1816. After studying first with his organist and composer father Stephen Francis Rimbault, he was a student of Samuel S. Wesley and William Crotch, becoming a noted organist in London. A highly respected music scholar, he was editor of the Motet Society and founded the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1840. Universities at Harvard, Stockholm, and Gottingen all awarded Rimbault honorary doctorate degrees, and he became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1842.

This music first appeared in The Wesleyan Sacred Harp published at Boston, MA, in 1854 by William McDonald. There it was set to "Jesus, My All To Heaven Has Gone" by John Cennick, with Doddridge’s text given as an alternate. (Second Hymn)








The 20th century saw its adaptation from 3/4 to 4/4 time and this new arrangement by Edwin Hawkins, which contains only the repeated Rimbault refrain ("Oh Happy Day, Oh Happy Day, when Jesus washed my sins away! He taught me how to watch and pray, and live rejoicing every day").
All of the original verses being omitted.

The Edwin Hawkins Singers began as The Northern California State Youth Choir of the Church of God in Christ, Inc. and was founded in 1967 by Hawkins and Betty Watson. Members were aged 17–25. As was common in gospel circles they produced and distributed their own LP: " Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord" , recorded live in church.
"Oh, Happy Day", featuring Dorothy Morrison as lead vocalist, was picked up by a local DJ, KSAN's Bob Mcclay, and subsequently released commercially. Aretha Franklin had already brought strong gospel stylings to the pop charts with songs such as "Think" (1968), but a hymn had never “crossed over” before. "Oh Happy Day" soared into the US Top 5, winning a Grammy and massive sales worldwide.


Personnel
Dorothy Combs Morrison - Lead Vocal
Edwin Hawkins - Choir Director, Arranger, Piano
Betty Watson - Co-Director, Soprano
Choir Members - Walter Hawkins, Tramaine Hawkins, Elaine Kelly, Margarette Branch, Rueben Franklin, Donald Cashmere, Ruth Lyons and 40 others.
Drums, bass and percussion - unconfirmed
Produced by La Mont Bench.
Recorded live 1967, Ephesian Church of God in Christ, Berkeley, California.
Independently released on the LP "Let us go into the house of the Lord" (1968) (Century Records 31016)







Listen here to The Northern California State Youth Choir :



"Oh Happy Day" was commercially released as a 7" single on Pavilion Records April 1969.
On the label it says here: The Edwin Hawkins Singers (formerly Northern California State Youth Choir).




Other versions
In addition to the Hawkins Singers, the song has been recorded by a number of other artists:

-Jack Jones recorded the song on his 1969 album A Jack Jones Christmas.

-Dee Felice Trio included the song on their 1969 album In Heat.

-Dorothy Morrison sang it in September 1969 at the Big Sur Festival with Joan Baez.
"Oh Happy Day" – Dorothy Morrison and the Combs Sisters with Baez
  (opens with Baez rehearsing same number with Morrison and in the background Stephen Stills and John Sebastian)



-Glen Campbell recorded the song for a primarily country/MOR audience, reaching the top 40 on three different Billboard charts in 1970.

-Brook Benton 1970 on album "The Gospel Truth"  (Cotillion Label)

-Joan Baez included the song on her 1971 album Carry It On, and later her 1976 live album From Every Stage.

-Brooklyn Christian pop band Sonseed included a version on their 1981 album First Fruit.

-Aretha Franklin included a live recording on her 1987 gospel album One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism in which she sings the song in a duet with Mavis Staples.



-Club Nouveau included the song on their 1992 album A New Beginning. The single charted at No. 45 on the US R&B Chart.

-Ryan Toby at the age of 15, performed the song in the 1993 motion picture Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. Singing in the choir is a 18 year old Lauryn Hill.




-In 1995, The Sisters of Glory, a gospel group that featured Thelma Houston, CeCe Peniston, Phoebe Snow, Lois Walden, and Albertina Walker, included the composition on their album Good News in Hard Times released on Warner Bros.

-BeBe Winans recorded the song on his 1997 self-titled solo debut album BeBe Winans.

-It is the closing track on the live album Royal Albert Hall October 10, 1997, by Spiritualized.

-Ray Charles live in 2003. This was recorded for a PBS Special entitled: Ray Charles - Gospel Christmas with the Voices of Jubilation.




-Aaron Neville recorded the song for his 2005 album Gospel Roots.

-Queen Latifah & Jubilation Choir perform the song on the 2009 album "Oh Happy Day: An All Star Music Celebration".

-Greg Buchanan recorded an instrumental harp rendition of the song on his album The Lighter Side.

-Elvis Presley recorded the song as well. It appears on Disc 2 of the collection Peace In The Valley: The Complete Gospel Recordings.
And here's Elvis from "That's The Way It Is" (1970) Las Vegas International Hotel




-Skeeter Davis recorded the song ca 1975 during a (re)recording session for K-Tel in Nashville.

-An 8 minute live version by Nina Simone was included in the posthumous release The Definitive Rarities Collection – 50 Classic Cuts.


More cover-versions HERE:


And here:



zaterdag 13 april 2013

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (1872/1909) / Swing Down Chariot (1946) / Chariot Rock (1958)


"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a historic American Negro spiritual written by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in the old Indian Territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma sometime before 1862. He was inspired by the Red River, which reminded him of the Jordan River and of the Prophet Elijah's being taken to heaven by a chariot (2 Kings 2:11). Many sources claim that this song and "Steal Away" (also composed by Willis) had lyrics that referred to the Underground Railroad, the resistance movement that helped slaves escape from the South to the North and Canada. Alexander Reid, a minister at the Old Spencer Academy, Choctaw boarding school, heard Willis singing these two songs and transcribed the words and melodies. He sent the music to the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. It was first printed in Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University (1872)



But other sources claim the spiritual was written by Sarah Hannah Sheppard.


The Jubilee Singers popularized the song during a tour of the United States and Europe 1873-1878




But it was not until 1909 that the Fisk Jubilee Singers made their first recording of the song

(o) Fisk University Jubilee Quartet (1909)
Bass vocal: Noah Walker Ryder , Alfred Garfield King
Tenor vocal: John Wesley Work II , J. A. Myers
Recorded on December 1, 1909 in Camden, New Jersey
Matrix Number/Take Number: B-8420/3
Released on Victor 16453





The Fisk University Jubilee Qt also recorded "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" on December 27, 1911 on Edison Cylinder BA 5216





There may be an older recorded version by the Standard Quartette on cylinder from 1894:



Also see this Columbia 1894 brown-wax cylinder announcement, from Bill Bryant’s papers.

Date mentioned April 11, 1894 in Washington D.C.



This version was found in a trash of cylinders and was released in September 2016.

Listen here:




And here are more versions

(c) Apollo Jubilee Quartette (1912)
Recorded February 26, 1912
Matrix 19773=2 - (IS=8/12)
Released on Columbia A-1169



Listen here:





(c) Tuskegee Institute Singers (1916)
Recorded February 14, 1916
Matrix/Take: B-16512 / 3
Released on Victor 17890





(c) Kitty Cheatham (1916)
Recorded March 09, 1916
Matrix/Take: B-16998/7
Released on Victor 45086




Listen here:




Harry Thacker Burleigh's arrangement of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot was originally published for solo voice in 1917 following the success of Deep River.
Burleigh 's setting was published in 1920 for mixed chorus by G. Ricordi & Co., New York.

Antonín Dvořák, Burleigh's professor at the National Conservatory of Music, used the tune of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot in his Symphony No. 9, "From the New World."



Burleigh had learned many of the old plantation songs from the singing of his blind maternal grandfather, Hamilton Waters, who in 1832 bought his freedom from slavery on a Maryland plantation. Waters became the town crier and lamplighter for Erie, Pennsylvania, and as a young boy Burleigh helped guide him along his route. The family was Episcopalian and young Harry sang in the men and boys choir. Burleigh also "remembered his Mother's singing after chores and how he and his [step] father and grandfather all harmonized while helping her." At various times in his long life — he died in 1949 at age 81 — Burleigh described his student days with Dvorak. Taken together, Burleigh's writings provide insight into Dvorak's ongoing Negro music education while he was composing what would become the Symphony "From the New World": "Dvorak used to get tired during the day and I would sing to him after supper ... I gave him what I knew of Negro songs – no one called them spirituals then – and he wrote some of my tunes (my people's music) into the New World Symphony." Dvorak began working on various "American" themes in mid-December 1892, filling eleven pages of a sketchbook. Burleigh wrote: "Part of this old 'spiritual' ['Swing Low Sweet Chariot'] will be found in the second theme of the first movement ... given out by the flute. Dvorak saturated himself with the spirit of these old tunes and then invented his own themes. There is a subsidiary theme in G minor in the first movement with a flatted seventh [a characteristic passed on to jazz, known as a "blue note"] and I feel sure the composer caught this peculiarity of most of the slave songs from some that I sang to him; for he used to stop me and ask if that was the way the slaves sang."




(c) Mabel Garrison 1921
Recorded April 28, 1921
Mx B24244-1
Released on Victrola 64969





(c) The Southern Four (1921)
Recorded December 7, 1921
Released on Edison Diamond disc 51364





(c) C. Carroll Clark (1921)

Released on Black Swan 2024








In 1922 Roland Hayes recorded a version in London, England of the Burleigh arrangement.
Release in England in 1923 on Aeolian Vocalion B-3039 and in the US in 1924 on Vocalion B 21003.




Listen here:






Roland Hayes had already recorded a version of "Swing Low" in 1918 for the Columbia-label
Released on Columbia Graphophone Company 62050








(c) Morehouse College Quartet (1923)
Recorded June 15, 1923 in Atlanta GA
Released on Okeh 4887



Listen here:





(c) Associated Glee Clubs of America (1926)
Recorded February 6, 1926 in New York
Released on Victor 35770







(c) Paul Robeson (1926)
Recorded January 07, 1926
Matrix/Take: BVE-33119
Released on Victor 20068B


Listen here:




(c) Dame Nellie Melba (1926)
Recorded in Small Queens Hall, London
December 1926, piano Harold Craxton.
Released on  on HMV DB 989
This was Melba’s very last recording



Listen here:





(c) Kanawha Singers (1928)
Recorded January 1928
Released on Brunswick 3801



Listen here:





(c) Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra (1937)
Recorded July 23, 1937 in Los Angeles
Released on Decca 1396








(c) Bing Crosby (1938)
Recorded May 3, 1938
Released on Decca 1819





Or here:





(c) The Southernaires (1939)
Recorded June 14, 1939
Released on Decca 2855 as part of a 5- disc 78 RPM album # 83



Listen here:





(c) Charioteers (1939)
Recorded August 4, 1939
Released on  Brunswick 8468



Listen here:





(c) Tex Beneke with The Glenn Miller Orchestra (1946)
Recorded February 21, 1946 in New York
Released on RCA Victor 20-1834




Listen here:





(c) Christine Clark (1956)
Recorded February 8, 1956 in New York City
Released on Savoy 4075A (78 RPM)




Also released on the next 45 RPM


Listen here:





(c) The Champs (1958)  (as "Chariot Rock")






(c) Laurel Aitken (1963)
Released on Blue Beat BB 164


Listen here:





The song enjoyed a resurgence during the 1960s Civil Rights struggle and the folk revival; it was performed by a number of artists. Joan Baez had sung the song in 1968 it at the Newport Folk Festival. But perhaps her most famous performance during this period was at the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival.

Watch Joan here:




Eric Clapton recorded the most well-known version in 1975, possibly influenced by Laurel Aitken's version (SEE ABOVE)


Listen here:




(c) UB40 (2003)
Official England Rugby World Cup 2003 song





"Swing LOW Sweet Chariot" is NOT to be confused with "Swing DOWN Sweet Chariot" as recorded by Elvis Presley in 1960, which has a different melody and different lyrics too.
Elvis recorded "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" on October 31, 1960, at RCA's Nashville studios. Vocal backing was by the Jordanaires.


Listen here:



 Elvis recorded another version in 1968 (October 14 or 24) at United Recorders in Hollywood for his film The Trouble With Girls.

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Elvis's "Swing Down (Sweet) Chariot" might have been originally recorded by The Golden Gate Quartet, who recorded "Swing Down Chariot" in June 1946, which however starts with the common "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" arrangement, as recorded by the Fisk Jubilee Singers and after about 1 minute turns into a "swing"version with adapted lyrics.


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The Jordanaires distilled the "swing" part from the version of the Golde Gate Quartet and expanded it into a complete song

(c) The Jordanaires (1950)  (as "Swing Down Sweet Chariot")
Recorded July 4, 1950 in Nashville, TN
Released on Decca 14555





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(c) Blackwood Brothers Quartet (1950) (as "Swing Down Chariot")
Released on Blackwood Bros # 1162



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In 1961 The Staple Singers recorded an album for the Vee Jay-label, which contained both Chariot-versions:  The uptempo "Swing Down Chariot" and the slow "Swing Slow Sweet Chariot".








Beyonce also sang the Golden Gate Quartet variation in the 2003 movie "Fighting Temptations".






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