919. When the Saints Go Marching In (Traditional American)

This song began as a gospel hymn called "When the Saints are Marching In", written by Katherine Purvis in 1896, with music by James Milton Black. It was changed to its present form in 1927, and soon became a jazz staple. It was traditionally used as a funeral march in New Orleans, where it woud be played as a slow dirge as the coffin was carried to the cemetery, and then as an upbeat "Dixieland"-style tune on the way back. The New Orleans football team named themselves the Saints, after the song.

Early versions of the song are apocalyptic, using imagery from "Revelations", though it is often watered down in modern versions. For example, in the version I sing, "when the sun refuse to shine" is sung as "when the sun begins to shine" which tends to render the apocalyptic message meaningless.

Louis Armstrong was the first to popularise the song nationally in the 1930s, to the dismay of his sister who thought it was blasphemous to treat a church hymn as a jazz band tune. It was also brought into the rock and roll repertoire by Fats Domino and also by Bill Haley and His Comets. Others who have recorded it include The Weavers, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles, B.B. King, Dolly Parton and Bruce Springsteen.

You can see a playlist of my gospel songs here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5444D35A2AD94845

My website is http://www.raymondcrooke.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• gospel
• jazz
• hymn
• funeral
• new
• orleans
• louis
• armstrong
• judy
• garland
• weavers

[scotty3670131]

nice job!

[raymondcrooke]

Thanks, Scotty.

[TieACherryWitIt]

You give Americans a good name, I love this song... You did a great job! :)

[raymondcrooke]

Well, the Americans do have a lot of good songs. Thanks for watching.

[coolya04]

don't be rude

he doesn't look a day over 50

oh and thank you sir

your very good

you could give cliff richard a run for his money

[raymondcrooke]

Well, I'm somewhere between those two figures. Thanks for watching.

[agrlfmtx]

I want to be in that number!!! t:)

[mktmic7]

great job********

[HaHaHaHaSmile]

唱得真棒！

[aquaguyadam86]

very good sonny jim. im also 500 years old