Saturday, December 14, 2013

Mary’s Boy Child Jesus Christ

Boney M
http://youtu.be/6QskYr5xpNs

"Mary's Boy Child" is a 1956 Christmas song, written by Jester Hairston. It is widely performed as a Christmas carol.
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.[1] 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 ofcorn bread.[1] 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.[1]
Harry Belafonte heard the song being performed by the choir and sought permission to record it.[1] It was recorded in 1956 for his album An Evening with Belafonte. An edited version was subsequently released as a single,[2] reaching #1 on the UK charts in 1957. In 1962 the full-length version was added to a reissue of Belafonte's previously released album To Wish You a Merry Christmas.

The song was also recorded by Mahalia Jackson in 1956 but titled "Mary's Little Boy Child".[3]
From Wikipedia

Connie Talbot

Jose Mari Chan

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